New Sheriff in Town
by pettyimperfections
Summary: Beth Greene has no clue where she is when she wakes up. The last thing she remembers was telling Daryl she wasn't going to leave him. Now she doesn't have him or any one else she can co-depend on. She going to have to save herself, and maybe a few others while she's at it.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Okay so this is my first Bethyl fanfic. I am totally and absolutely in love with this ship and this story is my way of surviving until the show returns in October. I want to thank you in advance for taking the time to read. That is if anyone actually does read it *laughs nervously*. Feel free to leave reviews. **

When she first woke up, she couldn't remember where she was. At first she figured she must be at home in her bed, with the sun rolling through the open window. There was a ringing noise. Her cellphone? Probably Jimmy seeing if she was free for the day. But as her senses became more attentive she realized that the light was too artificial, that there was a dank smell around her and that the ringing was in her ears.

Beth's eyes flew open immediately, all she could see was a blur of figures standing over her and past them was an almost blinding light. Maybe they were talking, but she couldn't tell, all she could hear was that damned ringing. Her vision wouldn't focus either and panic was setting in. Where the hell was she!?

She knew this wasn't the farm. It took her a moment, but she realized the farm didn't even exist anymore. The walkers had taken it over and taken Jimmy and Patricia with it and rest of them were forced to run. Then there was the prison…but the lights were far too bright…and the prison no longer existed either. The Governor had destroyed that for them. He killed her father and tried to everyone else along with him. But she got out. She got out with Daryl.

_Daryl! _

It all came flooding back to her at once. She'd been with Daryl right up until the mortuary. She'd hurt her ankle while he was teaching her how to track and he carried her there. The place had been spotless, like somebody had been taking care of it and there where walker bodies in the basement that look like they had been prepared for a funeral. There was also food. Some food she'd never thought she'd see again. And just when Beth thought they might be safe for a while, walkers came swamping through the front door and Daryl told her to run… what had happened after that?

Beth's fingers curled into the sheet, "Hey!" her throat was rough and she couldn't tell if the words were even coming out properly. "Where am I? Can any of you help me? I need to get to…"

Before she could finish her sentence there was a pinch in her arm and everything went dark.

**. . .**

When Beth woke up the next time, she was more aware. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again. To her surprise, her vision focused quite quickly and the ringing in her ears had stopped. The room was now empty and the light that she had seen before had been lowered, but not so much that she couldn't see her surroundings.

The room was small, grey and box shaped. There was no windows and only one door, which she assumed was the way out. Beth sat herself up and realized she was in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV that was dripping steadily. But this sure as hell wasn't a hospital. And she sure as hell wasn't letting anymore of whatever was in that IV baggy into her body.

With a one swift movement the line was out of her arm and dangling above the floor, steadily dripping all the same. She then threw the covers off of herself and swung her legs over the side of the bed. When she stood up and put her full weight on her feet, a groan of pain escaped her lips. Her ankle was not fully healed. If anything it felt worse. But there was no time to deliberate how bad it was. She'd tend to it later when she was out of this damn room.

Beth walked briskly to the door, ignoring the ache, and put her hand on the door knob. But of course when she turned it, it did not open. It was locked from the outside. She leaned her head against the door and sighed. Whoever had her in this room wanted to keep her there, for whatever reason. But she had people to find and being locked in a room would just not do, so she started beating her hands against the door.

"HEY OPEN THIS DOOR UP RIGHT NOW! I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE AND I SWEAR TO GOD IF I DON'T THERE WILL BE SHIT TO PAY!", Beth was yelling as loud as she could with her hoarse voice, "THERE WILL BE NO WHERE TO HIDE IF I GET OUT OF HERE MYSELF!".

She prayed the threat sounded as vindictive as she wanted it to. She was not the spiteful type, but she'd make an exception for these bastards if it came down to it. Which it just might of because she'd continued yelling and pounding on the door for at least five minutes.

Beth's voice was becoming quieter and quieter and the pain in her foot was getting harder to ignore, but she kept on until the door knob started to twist and started opening towards her. She took a step back and prepared herself for whatever was next. But she was taken aback by the person who opened it. A boy, probably a little older than her, and he was smiling.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa calm down please, I'm not gonna to hurt you," he put his hands up in front of him and waved them a bit to show her that they were empty. "I want to help you."

Beth tried to keep her guard up and spat out, "Who are you? And where am I?"

"I'm Gareth," he held out his hand. "Welcome to Terminus"

**AN: ANNNND that's the end of the chapter. I'll try to update as often as I can. **


	2. Chapter 2

"Termi-what?" Beth asked.

"Terminus," Gareth lowered her hand when she would not take it, but sustained his smile as he explained. "It is a sanctuary and community for those who make it here in one piece. We take people in all the time."

Beth put her hands on her hips and stared him down. She didn't like that smile he had plastered on his face. It seemed far too fake and she really didn't like the sound of his voice when he talked about those who arrived in one piece. It made her extremely uncomfortable.

"And can you tell me how exactly I happened to arrive here, Gareth?" Beth had no clue what happened after the mortuary and wondered if he would be able to shed some light on it.

"You really don't remember?" He sounded concerned but Beth couldn't tell how genuine it was.

"No, I don't. Enlighten me please."

"Well you stumbled upon me and my companion when we were on an outing, you were running down the road from something I guess, probably some corpses. You were screaming at us about needin' help, but when we approached you, you pulled your knife on us," Gareth rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and chuckled to himself, "You did get a few good swiped in on me, actually."

Beth glanced down and saw that he had long – but not particularly deep – slashes on his right forearm. She didn't exactly know if she should be feeling guilty about it or not.

"And well, we wanted to help you, but you wouldn't exactly let us… so my buddy just kind of bumped you over the head with the butt of his gun so you wouldn't hurt us or yourself. Then we got you into the car and headed here."

"Just me?" Beth bit the inside of her cheek and had a terrible feeling in her stomach.

"Yeah, you were the only living person running 'bout, besides us. Why?"

"I…I was with someone, that's why I was asking for help...we needed help…" Beth could no longer stand and sunk down onto the floor.

Gareth knelt down beside her, asking her if she was okay and gently touching her shoulder. Beth couldn't hear him though, all her thoughts were on Daryl and those walkers that she'd left him with. How there was no way she could of gotten this far without him and how she couldn't just leave him.

"Let me help you to the bed Beth," Gareth's hands were on her elbows now and trying to get her up.

"No," Beth shook him off and slowly stood up herself, "I don't need any more of your help. I'm going back."

"Back where?"

"Where do you think!?" Beth was ready for action, even though she had no clue where she was or how she was going to get back.

"Beth," that was the second time he'd said her name, she couldn't remember if she told him it or not, "there's no point."

"Excuse me?"

"We brought you here almost a week ago, if the person you were with survived, they'd be long gone."

…

It was took everything that was in Beth not to pounce on Gareth or run out of the room, she knew that would just give her more trouble. So instead she had forced Gareth out of the room, all while yelling a string of curse words at him and slammed the door in his face.

Now she was sitting on the edge of the bed trying to process everything. She had no idea where she was and she had been stuck in this tiny room for almost a week. The last time she saw Daryl there was a hoard of walkers bursting through the door, trying to rip him apart, and now he was God knows where with God knows who or…

Beth couldn't think of the other possibility. She refused to. There was no way that Daryl Dixon could be dead. He was strong and smart and he knew how to survive. He had to of gotten out. And if he had he would come looking for her…wouldn't he?

Of course he would. Daryl and her had been through so much together, he wouldn't just forget about her. She'd like to think that if she knew where to start that she would go looking for him and pushed all the doubts she was having to the very back of her mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Daryl rolled restlessly in the bed until he found a comfy spot, not that it helped it any, he couldn't sleep for the life of him. To be honest he hadn't really slept since he ended up with these marauders. As a result he laid there, looking at the ceiling and listening to the chorus of different snores filling the house.

During the day he had plenty of things to distract him, like killing walkers and hunting. But at night nothing was there to block out the thoughts of Beth Greene. He wanted to know where she was, who she was with and if she was safe. It kept him up every night and every morning he paid for it.

Daryl would get up, after he couldn't take torturing himself anymore, and his entire body would feel heavy from the lack of sleep and guilt; guilt was always weighing him down. Tonight and the next morning would be no different.

Daryl closed his eyes and replayed the attack on the funeral home in his mind for the thousandth time.

When he opened the door he had expected it to be the mutt from earlier, but that wasn't what he got. It was stupid for him to open that door without checking, he was preoccupied with the conversation he'd been having with Beth and let it get the best of him.

That girl managed to get into his head so easily it scared him shitless. It also intrigued him how she understood him so much and that he could say what he needed to her without her judging everything he said. He wanted to protect her the best he could because there was just something about her that made him want to be close to her. But he failed and now she was gone.

"_I'm not gonna leave you!"_ That was the last thing she said to him and everything else was left unsaid.

He had come to the conclusion that someone had planned it. Those walkers were to get him out of the way so someone could nab Beth and it had worked perfectly. The car sped away and he had run all night after it, but it was no use, when he came to the crossroad he didn't know which way to go and she was long gone.

Finally, Daryl couldn't stand thinking about it anymore and he got out of the bed. He rubbed his hands over his eyes and tried to wipe away the gritty feeling. He walked across the room to the dresser, where he left his bag. He dug around in it for a few seconds until he was grasping a handful of dirt, roots and leaves and pulled the plant out of it. It was wilted and the fruit was a little mushy from being in the bag, but it wasn't an issue to him.

Daryl bit into the strawberry, _his _strawberry. He had claimed it. The word had come out of his mouth the instant he'd seen the plant on the side of the tracks and from that moment on it was his. That was the code.

"Now how's that strawberry tasting?"

Daryl turned his head and saw Joe leaning against the door frame. He didn't even hear him before he announced himself. Even if he was heavier set than Daryl, he was just as quiet.

"Fine. What are you doing up?"

"I heard a noise, thought I'd come investigate, make sure you weren't strangled to death and coming to turn us all."

Daryl knew Joe was really referring to his comrade, Lou. Joe mentioned him earlier that day.

"Well I'm not," Daryl wished the man didn't feel the need to constantly check up on him and make conversation. He liked brooding by himself.

"I bet that strawberry is damn good," Joe had a pleased look on his face as Daryl ate it. Daryl was playing by the rules and as the leader Joe liked when people played by the rules.

"I've had better," It wasn't exactly a lie, he probably had had better, Daryl just couldn't remember when.

Joe laughed at him and then continued on, "There ain't nothing better than something that belongs to you alone, and it only gets better."

"Hmm," Daryl finished his strawberry and thought about what Joe was saying. He couldn't sleep, but he had a bed, that was better than forest or concrete floors. But the next thing Joe said was not better.

"This shit we're tracking, we didn't just follow his tracks, there was at least another clear set of them, maybe if it's a woman…we may or may not all get our spoil."

Daryl shifted uncomfortably at that statement and watched Joe walk away laughing. Was that supposed to be joke? Daryl knew they were bad news, the second Len tried to pin the missing rabbit head on him, he knew. But were they going to stoop that low?

_There are still good people, Daryl. _

Maybe Beth was a good person, and maybe everyone at the prison were good people, but these men were far from that. They weren't just unfriendly, they were blood thirsty.

Len was 'taught all the way' for the trick he tried to with the rabbit. How far would they go with his man and the people he was with?

If he knew one thing, it was that he wouldn't be helping with this group with their revenge. He would stay with them for as long as he could. But as soon at things started going south that was going to be his cue to leave.

**AN: This took me forever because I don't really know how I feel in Daryl's mind set yet and I rewrote this a thousand times...give or take 992. **

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	4. Chapter 4

Hours after she kicked Gareth out of the room, Beth was still sitting on the hospital bed. There wasn't much else she could do, being locked in a room and all and it was driving her crazy.

She would have paced if she could, but her ankle was swelling up and throbbing. Beth inspected it, gingerly poking at it, and winced. For people who claimed they were trying to help her, they'd ignored a pretty obvious injury, considering it was definitely wrapped before she got to Terminus.

_Terminus. That is what Gareth called it right? _

Beth said the name aloud, "Terminus."

It wasn't a very welcoming name. But then again, the Governor's Woodbury sounded like a slice of heaven – a place where everyone was nice and said hello to you on the street. That wasn't the case.

Thinking about the Governor made Beth think of Maggie and the prison family. Daryl wasn't here, but Gareth said they took people in all the time. Could any of them be here? How large was Terminus? Was it run by a council or a dictator? Beth suddenly wished she hadn't kicked Gareth out of her room before he could tell her anything and she could ask questions.

She'd spent a fair amount of time thinking about Daryl and how stupid it was that she even ran down that road looking for help and things that she should have done differently, but now Terminus struck at her curiosity. Anyone from the prison had even a slight chance of getting here and that gave her hope.

As if he was able to sense what she was thinking, there were two knocks and Gareth was standing the doorway waving a white handkerchief not ten minutes later.

"Am I safe to enter further?"

Beth nodded and watched him jokingly take a few cautious steps toward her. He way laying it on pretty thick.

"My god, I'm not going to bite you," she rolled her eyes and stared daggers at him.

"Sorry," He dropped the joke and strode quickly toward her. When he was about a yard away she put her hand up and he stopped there.

Beth opened her mouth to speak, but Gareth was quicker, "I have a proposition for you, Beth."

"What?" Beth furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and watched him fish into his pocket and pull out a key, "What is that?"

"My proposition. Until you feel the need to move on, I'm offering that that you remain here with us. This is a key to a spare room we have, you can move out of the hospital wing and stay there if you want."

Beth blinked a few times at the key, "I have no idea what this place really is even. You basically kidnapped me. Would you mind telling me about Terminus….specifically who else is here besides you?"

"Sure, I'll tell you anything you want," Gareth moved closer to the bed and set the key down on the bed.

"Have you taken anyone else in recently, besides me?" Beth kept it sort and simple, she didn't want to tell him anything too concrete quite yet.

"I already told you, we didn't know you had a partner…."

"No that's not what I mean, just like generally speaking, have you taken anyone else in?"

"Well, sure. We took in another girl a few weeks ago..."

Beth felt the little bud of hope in her stomach bubble and leaned toward him excitedly.

"…But she didn't survive a supply run we did last week," Gareth had a sad look on his face, as if recalling it was painful for him. "It was really unfortunate, she was a great girl."

"What was he name?" Beth chewed the inside of her cheek, the excitement was replaced by nervousness.

"Emily."

It was a relief, she didn't know anyone by that name, but Beth didn't relax. There were still others that could have made it, "Anyone else?"

"A few, but they opted to leave. They were just passing through, something about family in Kentucky. That was two or three months ago."

"That everyone?"

"Yup."

Beth slumped down in disappointment. That meant no one from the prison family was here. Beth bit her lip and silently started picking at her finger nails. She was almost positive that at least someone else besides her and Daryl got out. Was she really alone?

The idea of being alone struck a nerve with Beth. She had left completely alone when her mother died and it made her feel empty inside. She'd never really been alone since then. Beth always had someone she knew that she could spend her time with, even if it was just baby Judith.

"Beth, I promise we'll take good care of you if you choose to stay," Gareth smiled sweetly at her.

"Who is _we_ even? What is Terminus exactly?"

"I told you, it's a sanctuary. We are a community and we depend and trust each other. Including you we'd have just over twenty five people here."

A community. Beth thought about the prison, they had all had their job and depended on each other. They didn't lie about the refuge they offered like the Governor did. Maybe she could give Terminus a chance. At least until she was healed.

"Could you maybe show me to the room?" Beth grabbed the key from the bed and pressed it into her palm. Only until she was healed.

**AN: Okay so Beth decided to stay, but she hasn't given up on or forgotten about Daryl. REMEMBER THAT.**

**Leave reviews lovelies :). **


	5. Chapter 5

Beth sat tolerantly as the "doctor" Gareth sent in tended to her ankle; he was anything but gentle about it. When Daryl wrapped her ankle he made a point of not jostling it too much or making the bandaging too tight. This guy was doing the complete opposite and it was making Beth tighten her jaw and she was forcing herself to choke down the nasty things she would have liked to say.

"Ahh," Beth grinded her teeth together when she at last lost the battle with herself and let a gasp of pain escape.

"Sorry," the boy looked up at her apologetically and then his eyes shifted back now to assess his work. "It's a bit um…"

"Its fine," Beth didn't think she could control herself if he decided he needed to start over.

"Yeah, I'm not exactly a real doctor if you couldn't tell," He got up from his crouching position on the floor and looked sheepishly at her. "Before all this I was just a volunteer at Red Cross."

"So you're the best they got?" Beth didn't mean for it to sound rude or unappreciative, but when she said it she realized that's probably how it sounded.

He didn't seem offended though, he seemed a little amused actually. "Oh no, thank goodness. I'm really just a volunteer again, but our doctors are in demand right now, so you get stuck with me."

"What are they busy with?" Beth wondered if there was a sick person here and if the Terminus people knew that you turned no matter how you died now.

"Nothing you really need to be concerned with," he held out his hand to help Beth down form the bed and she took it. When she stood it didn't hurt as much as she thought it would, maybe he did a better job than they both gave him credit for.

"Thank you very much," Beth gave him one of her smiles to show that she really meant it.

"No problem," He smiled back.

"Cameron," Gareth at some point had shown up and was calling the boy – Cameron apparently – over to him.

"Yeah?" Cameron looked over at Gareth like a first mate might look at their captain.

"I need you to go feed the stock," Cameron nodded once, said goodbye to Beth and left Gareth and her alone in the room together.

"You have livestock here?" Beth was a vegetarian before the turn, but now she enjoyed and was extremely thankful for any sort of meat she could get to sustain herself.

"Yeah," Gareth shrugged and changed the subject, "Now that we got you ankle wrapped, how about I show you to your new room."

"That sounds good," Beth was only conscious for probably half a day, but she was ready to leave this room behind for good.

…

Gareth offered Beth help walking, but she declined, she wanted to test out the job that Cameron did on the ankle. They made their way into the hallway and Beth walked a little slower than she was probably capable of and looked around. She was hoping to learn something more about this place. But there was nothing on the plain brown walls or anything on the similarly plain colored and floors. The ceilings were a basic white with large, lowered, lights hanging a few meters apart all the way down.

"We have generators, but we try not to waste too much energy, so we keep everything lowered unless it's extremely needed" Gareth was a couple steps in front of her and must of guessed she was looking around.

"Hmm," Beth really had nothing important to contribute to the attempt at conversation, all she really could have added to it was how the lighting just made the already dull colors even gloomier.

Everything Beth had seen in Terminus so far, being just the hallways and the hospital room had been all dreary shades and she hoped for nothing more that there would be a window of some kind in her room.

The walk to the room was long and confusing. They went down the dimly lit hall and took a ridiculous amount of rights then an equally outrageous amount of left turns. At some point they passed a stair case leading down and Beth wondered if that was the basement, or if there were multiple stories to the building they were in, and how many buildings they were for that matter. Terminus was still a mystery to her really. She knew nothing about this place. All she'd focused on so far was survivors – or lack thereof – from the prison.

Gareth walked in front of her for most of the trip, leading her, and Beth was fine with that. He'd been nothing but nice, but she couldn't decide if she was getting a bad vibe from him or not. Maybe she was just biased because he was he one to tell her what happened and she had the kill the messenger attitude toward him, but she wasn't going to be telling him secrets anytime soon or letting him braid her hair.

"Here we are," Gareth finally stopped in front of a door with the numbers 131 on it, "Can I see your key?"

Beth was still holding the key in her hand from before Gareth sent Cameron in to wrap her ankle and released her grip on it. She didn't realize she'd been holding it so tight that there was an imprint on her palm from it. She held it to him and he took it.

"Thank you… oh and try not to lose this, it's the only copy," Gareth fit the key into the lock and turned it, they heard the click, indicating it was unlocked now. "Would you like to do the honours?"

Gareth moved out of the way, making room for Beth at the door to open it herself. She took the offer up and twisted the doorknob, opening the door into her new room.

It was bigger than the last, but just as bland. There were ugly, sad blue colored walls, a single bed with grey sheets on the back wall in the middle, and to her dismay, no windows. There was however another door on the on the right side of the room.

"What's in there?" Beth headed towards the door.

"That's the bathroom."

"With running water?"

"Running, hot water."

Beth was absolutely ecstatic when Gareth said those words and made up completely for no windows. They'd had a pretty decent set up at the prison, but there was an absence of hot water and Beth longed for that since the farm. The mentioning of the bathroom also made Beth very aware of the stench coming from her. She'd spent almost a week in the hospital bed and reeked of her own soil.

"I'll come get you in a few hours for breakfast?" Gareth began to leave the room.

"Breakfast?" Beth's concept of time was completely off, she had no idea that it was even daylight out.

"Yup," Gareth left the room, closing the door behind him.

Beth was already behind the bathroom door undressing and hoping there was soap.

**AN: I'm going to be updating every Tuesday and Thursday from now on (only Tuesdays if I don't add twice a week). But I'm just saying now that I suck at schedules and will probably still had randomly. I will try my best however. **

**Okay thanks for reading loves. **

**Review, review, review!**


	6. Chapter 6

Daryl's finger hovered lightly over the trigger of his crossbow as he followed the tracks. He avoided every twig that could snap under his foot and even with the forest floor covered in the fallen leaves from autumn, he managed to make next to no sound. It was something he no longer had to practice, being silent, he had years of experience on his back and it was his nature.

He saw the deer he'd been tracking tail from the corner of his eye and side stepped, the end half of its body now visible, and then in the entire deer was in full view. It was lucky enough to turn its head in time to see Daryl before his finger could react fast enough to make the kill shot and tried to make its escape. The bolt went flying into the deer's side while the creature was in its second stride and it stumbled a bit. Daryl reloaded as quickly as possible and continued after the, now wounded, deer. The second bolt hit a few inches to the left from the first, closer the hip and the thing was slowed down enough that Daryl could get close and run his knife from one side of its throat to the other.

It wasn't so lucky after all.

Daryl examined the doe, he didn't show it on his stony face, but this was best game he'd got in a while and it was pleasing. It was a decent size, young, but had plenty of meat on its bones; more than enough for him. There was the option of bringing it back to the house for the rest of the men, but then again, why should he? They were nothing more than expendable to him. He made the decision to take what he could for himself and leave the rest behind. The walkers were more deserving of the meat than those men.

He didn't have a game bag or even his garbage bag with him however. He wasn't expecting to find a deer on his hunt, he was expecting something more along the lines of fluffy and tiny, and was pretty limited on what amount he could take without lugging the entire deer with him. This changed his mind and he decided to cook it and eat as much as he could there.

When the fire was crackling and the meat was cooking over it, Daryl sat against a tree and looked at the sky. The sun rose a while ago, but the sky was still slightly pink. He'd have to go back soon. The group liked to leave as soon as the sky was blue. They figured that the man they were hunting started moving shortly after that and they were going to be close on his trail as they could.

The meat didn't take long to cook, Daryl liked it rare, and he ate it quickly. It'd been a while since he ever indulged in eating slowly and enjoying it, food was food, although the strawberry was a treat. When he was done he threw his crossbow over his shoulder and began to head back.

…

The men were already to go when Daryl got there and Joe was in a particularly good mood. He was leaning against a rail, smoking and laughing along with a few of the others, "Ah Daryl, there you are. Time to go," he smiled at flicked his ashes from his cigarette and took a long drag.

"We in a rush?" Daryl walked up the stairs to the porch of the house. It reminded him somewhat of Hershel's old farm house. Big and white and something nicer than he had ever lived in himself. He pushed the thought of the farm house out of his mind though as his thoughts drifted to Beth and how she grew up in a place like this, and how she had been so unequipped for this world.

A chill was sent down Daryl's spine as he watched a twisted grin spread across Joe's face, "We're catching up". Joe took one last drag and finished his smoke. He dropped it onto the porch and crushed it with his foot, then pulled out a new one and lit it. "I sent Dan out a while after you left to do some scouting. He found some fresh prints, not a day old."

Daryl had no response to that. He went back into house to grab his bag and made his way up the stairs. Taking his sweet time in doing so. They were catching up, and that meant he'd be making an exit soon.

In the room he'd been staying in and found his bag on the dresser he'd left in on the night before. Beside the dresser was a full length mirror. He looked at his reflection in the mirror. He was in his thirties but he looked older. He looked timeworn, exhausted. Maybe when he left this group he'd sleep better and finally be able to make a plan on where to start looking for answers about Beth.

Someone banged the side of the house, the way they did when he checked for walkers, and it ran through the entire house. Joe's voice bellowed, "We're leaving now if you'd kindly move your ass, thank you."

Daryl left the room and went down the stairs and onto the porch. The group was already off it and walking away from the house. Daryl followed. They were moving at a fast pace, clearly motivated by the proximity of their prey and Daryl wondered if he should bother catching up.

In a way, they were the best thing he had, but they were also the worst he could have. They were a lot like Merle. Daryl loved his brother, but he didn't want to drift along with these men like he did with Merle, having them call all the shots. It was poisonous. If he didn't leave them behind it would kill him, Beth taught him that.

**AN: I think Daryl was probably torn about leaving them in the show. They were all he had. But they were expendable to him. He needed them like Michonne needed her pets.**

**I wanting to let you all know that I am going to be adding a Bethyl AU soon and would really like if you all took the time to read it when it's up.**

**Ta-ta for now. **

**REVIEW, REVIEW MY PRETTIES.**


	7. Chapter 7

Beth got out of the shower and wrapped one of the white towels hanging on a rail near the shower around her body, under the armpits, and secured it tightly. The air in the bathroom was humid and the mirror above the sink was steamed up. All together the shower and afterward made Beth feel warm and tingly.

Beth took a few steps and was across the bathroom at the sink. She wiped her hand across the mirror and cleared a little spot so that she could see herself. She hadn't seen her reflection in a mirror for at least two months, before the prison fell. Her cheeks were more sunken in then she remembered and the circles under her eyes were darker, but other than that she was the same old blonde hair, blue eyed Beth.

When Beth got left the bathroom she saw that there was a clean set of clothes folded neatly on the bed. She couldn't remember if they were there before when Gareth showed her the room but didn't really question it.

She walked to the bed, her wet hair dripping onto the floor as she did, and examined the clothes. They looked like they'd fit her fine. However, when she took off her towel and started shimmying into the pants, she noticed she'd lost a significant amount of weight.

Her hip bones protruded more than the usual and she could probably count every single one of her ribs. Her body must have been in complete overdrive during the week she was out, absorbing all of her fat and muscle on her body. The doctors apparently didn't see the need to try to tube feed her or something.

The thought of food made Beth's stomach rumble and she dressed quickly, hoping Gareth would make an appearance soon and take her to breakfast.

There wasn't a knock on her door anytime soon though and Beth wondered if he'd forgotten about her. Beth's stomach was complaining louder and louder as the time past and finally Beth couldn't take it any longer. She grabbed her key and swung the door open, positive she could find her own way around if she tried.

She started heading down the hallway and as soon as she came to the first turn, she was lost, unable to remember if she should go left or right. Luckily she heard someone call her name and she turned around to see Gareth jogging down the hallway to catch up to her.

"Hey, where are you going?" Gareth craned his neck over her shoulder to look down the hallway in the direction she'd been heading.

"I was going to see if I could find my own way to breakfast, I'm starving," Beth's stomach chimed in with a grumble to help emphasize.

"Well first, you're going the wrong way," Gareth chuckled and turned around, jerking his chin to tell Beth to follow. "Second, you probably shouldn't go anywhere without me just yet."

Beth walked a little quicker and fell in stride with him. "Why not?"

"Well, it's pretty easy to get lost here, plus you know, you're technically still an outsider," Beth understood what Gareth was saying, they were worried about who she really was. At the prison they were the same. People could lie about themselves and taking in someone new could set you on the edge of your seat.

"Okay, so just stick with a Terminus member for now, sounds good," Beth showed a few people from prison around, they all felt safer when someone was with the newcomer.

"No, just me."

Beth was a little baffled by this, they didn't assign specific people at the prison. "Why?"

"I'm vouching for you." Gareth made a sharp turn and they came to a staircase it might have been the one she saw earlier, but with all the twist and the turns it was impossible to be sure.

"Vouching?" Beth focused on making sure her foot was on the step before she stepped down, it was hard to see in this light.

"Yeah, to be taken in you need to be vouched for by one of the members until the rest of the group knows for sure they can trust you," there was another set of stairs after a small split level after the first.

Beth didn't say anything more about the whole vouching thing. She didn't fully understand it and an interesting concept, but right now she was too hungry to ask about the Terminus politics and she could sense they were getting close to the food.

After the second set of stairs, they came to a set of doors, like the ones you'd see in a high school, and Beth could see bright light coming from the cracks at the bottom of the doors. It was anything but artificial and she waited excitedly for Gareth to push them open.

The outside light was blinding at first. She stepped onto the concrete ground and shaded her eyes with her hand. Beth tried to look around, squinting at the buildings around her. She was whipping her head around side to side and ran directing into Gareth's back.

"Sorry," Beth lowered her hand and let her eyes adjust properly.

"It's fine, it's a lot to take in at once," Gareth put his hand on her shoulder blade and led her on. "I'll show you some stuff as soon as we're finished eating."

The smell meat of cooking filled Beth's nostrils as they got closer to where they'd be eating. As they rounded one last corner came into a common area and Beth saw a woman standing at a giant grill, flipping chunks of meat. Her mouth watered. Several other people, at least twelve, were sitting around in the courtyard like area at tables eating.

"Hey, Mary," Gareth greeted the woman grilling.

"Hello Gareth, this the new girl?" Mary lifted her tongs in the direction of Beth.

"Yes, this is Beth," Gareth smiled at the woman and turned to Beth, "Beth, this is Mary. Best cook in the apocalypse."

"It's very nice to meet you," Beth reached he hand out and offered it to Mary, who took it with her tong free hand and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you too," Mary looked over Beth, "My goodness, you have nothing on your bones! I'll make you a plate."

Mary grabbed a plate from the stack near the grill and loaded it up with meat. Just meat. There was no other option, but it didn't bother Beth much. Mary handed her the plate and Gareth took one too. He led her to a bench with a few other people sitting there and introduced her. They said hello and Beth smiled at them.

She sat down across from Gareth a watch as he lifted a piece of meat with his hands and started eating it. Beth picked up her own and sunk her teeth into it. The taste of the meat filled her mouth and she couldn't exactly place what animal it was. But as she chewed she decided she didn't care, it was delicious.

**AN: What did you all think of this chapter? What's your opinion on the vouching concept? It's a little like claiming. And the mystery meat? I'm sure you all know where I'm going with this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And I'm super happy to have reached the follows that I have already (even though I know that it is very minimal compared to some. But it really just amazes me that I managed to reach this amount even!)**

**I'm going to be adding my new Bethyl AU in about an hour. I hope all you lovely people will take the time to read it!**


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you sure?" Joe was sitting across from Daryl, who was watching as Tony updated him. They'd stopped about an hour after sundown, after tracking all day, to regroup and check their weapons; Tony was sent ahead to scout.

"Positive, he's sitting by a car with a bitch and kid, about five miles away," Tony had an animalistic look in his eyes that the other men were starting to mirror.

"Well, we best be getting a move on than," Joe popped his rounds back into his gun and pushed himself off the brush, "tonight's the night boys."

Something made Daryl move forward as the other men went weaving through the trees. He was going to leave. But the words bitch and kid... he had tried to brush off the sick feeling it gave him when Joe had first mention it, but he could never shake it. He was going to have their blood on his hands just as much as the other men if he didn't do something, they weren't responsible for Lou's death.

Could he really go against Joe and the others? They had a lot more man power, he was just...him. If he tried he himself might end up dead. He had to make a decision fast. They were getting closer. Daryl counted the miles down in his head.

Three miles to go. He could hear Joe's heavy breathing in front of him.

Two miles to go. Everyone was being hushed.

One mile to go. The shuffle of feet was getting quieter as the flickering of flames came into view. Joe made silent hand gestures to each one of the men, showing the where to go to surround the man and woman sitting at the fire, with their backs facing the trees. The kid wasn't in view.

Daryl lingered in the tree line as the men moved silently forward. They moved as quietly as Daryl did on hunts, and this was exactly what this was for them, a hunt. They were trapping their prey and this was the moment Daryl should have left. But he stayed. If there was an opportune moment he'd try to take it.

There was a click of a gun safety and Daryl could hear Joe talking now, taunting them. His voice carried to the trees. "Today is the day of reckoning, sir..."

Daryl moved started moving forward a bit to get a better look at the situation.

"Four Mississippi!"

Judging by the way the men were placed, if he tried anything he'd be dead in seconds. If he was dead that meant there was no chance of ever finding Beth. Daryl started to turn and that's when the fire illuminated their faces. Two faces he could never forget. People he considered his own, unlike these men. In an instant Daryl was turned back around and exiting onto the road and rounding the car, forgetting he stood alone. "Joe - hold up"

Joe looked surprised by his outburst, "You're stopping me at eight, Daryl."

Daryl moved closer to check if eyes were fooling him, but they weren't, it was Rick and Michonne. He swore up and down he'd never see them again, thought they were as good as dead, but there they were sitting on the ground. With guns pointed at their heads. "Just hold up."

The man holding a shotgun on Daryl left spoke up, with malice in his voice, "This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothing to talk about."

Daryl could see the interest Joe's face about his connection to these people, "The thing about nowadays is we got nothing but time. Say your piece, Daryl."

Daryl looked down at them and the one thing he could think of, the only case he could build was the words Beth had gotten stuck in his head, "These people, you're gonna let 'em go. These are good people."

Daryl thought maybe Joe could be reasoned with. He was the one that came up with the rules after all. If Daryl could reason with Joe he could save them.

"Now, I think Lou would disagree with you on that," Joe put his hand on his chest, still holding the gun with the other "I'll, of course, have to speak for him and all 'cause your friend here strangled him in a bathroom."

Daryl tried to come up with an offer, "You want blood, I get it," Daryl set down is crossbow and raised his arms, Take it from me, man. Come on"

"This man killed our friend," something in Joe's face changed then. The same way it had when he decided that Len was going to die. "You say he's good people. See, now that right there is a lie."

Daryl's arms fell to his sides. Joe liked him, but not as my as he wanted revenge.

Joe shouted, "It's a lie!"

Daryl felt the butt of the shotgun go into his stomach and knock the wind of him. He heard Rick yell no. The second blow went into his jaw, the third his eye. They slammed him up against the car and he tried to fight back uselessly. With every blow he could feel his sleepless nights catching up to him and how weak he really was.

Joe was taunting Rick again and Daryl could hear the car door open. Carl was inside. Rick was pleading now. "Listen, it was me. It was just me!"

Joe spoke, "See, now that's right. That's not some damn lie."

Daryl fell to the ground and the men paused for a second then continued on. A foot went into his rib cage and he could feel it crack.

"Look, we can settle this. We're reasonable men. First, we're gonna beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girl. Then the boy. Then I'm gonna shoot you and then we'll be square."

Joe's laugh was practically a cackle.

Suddenly there was a gun shot. Then another. Daryl's vision was blurring, but he could hear every grunt and laugh. Every whimper coming from helpless Carl.

Every gurgle.

Joe screamed and suddenly everyone stopped. Daryl's vision focused just in time to see everyone watching as Rick tore away from Joe's neck and spat out his flesh. This was not the opportune moment Daryl had been thinking about, but it worked. Michonne was the first to act, sending a bullet into Tony's neck and he was next.

He pushed himself back up and tried to get a swing in. He ignored all the fatigue he was feeling, all the defeat, and his hand collided with his one of his attacker's face. Michonne sent another bullet into the other. With all the force he could manage, Daryl's boot went down on his attackers face and he could feel his skull crush underneath it.

Daryl heard Rick practically growl, "He's mine," and turned around to see him repeatedly shoving a knife into Dan's chest and neck. He could only stand there and watch. The rest of them were dead around them, Joe had gotten off easy compared to the death this man was receiving for touching Rick's son.

**AN: I have been MIA since like Tuesday I know. I'm a student though and have to focus on school first! If it was possible I'd spend all of my time obsessing over Bethyl. But alas, that is not the case.**

**Now about this chapter. There are certain parts I tweaked about the fight scene (I'm pretty sure there was no fire anymore after Joe showed up) but it's nothing too drastic. Other than that it's basically right out of the show only from Daryl's POV. Of course I don't think he actually knew about their intentions toward Michonne/ and or Carl in the show until they announced it to Rick, so there's that too. **

**Okay. I'll be updating a lot this week too to so stay tuned.**

**And don't forget to check out my new AU. **

**Thank you everyone!**


	9. Chapter 9

"It's okay we got it," Gareth waved his hand quickly at Beth and then swung it back under the corner of the dresser he and Cameron were carrying. "Just go open the door."

Beth had been offering to help the entire way to her room but they wouldn't let her with her ankle. She felt really bad, considering the dresser was for her room, but they were insistent on her not straining herself.

The dresser wasn't outrageously big, but it was big enough that you needed at least two people to carry it, and was made of a nice heavy wood. Gareth had taken Beth to a storage room earlier when he was showing her around and she liked it as soon as she saw it.

The storage room was the last thing of the day he showed her after dinner - which was more meat with a surprising side of grilled veggies - before the sun went down. All day he'd been showing her around, only interrupted by a few people whispering in his ear and lunch. He'd shown her where the tracks meet (the entrance to Terminus) and all the pretty sunflowers surrounding it. Gareth had taken her to a building where they make maps and signs to guide people and he showed the rest of the hospital wing.

The only thing that really interested Beth was the maps and she wondered where they were all placed, if people could read them easily. If the signs were in easy access then Daryl could follow them. Maggie could follow them.

When Gareth showed Beth the storage room he told her to pick out stuff that she liked so she could start making her room a bit homier. She didn't want to go overboard or step over the line, so she picked just two things, the dresser and a large pretty painting of lilies, which she was carrying under her arm as they made their way to her room.

Beth jogged ahead a bit and looked for the numbers 131, the hall was lined in doors and Beth wondered if everyone from Terminus lived on this floor. When she found her door she dug around in her pocket and got her key out. She opened the door just in time, Gareth and Cameron were almost running her over they were so close.

The two boys shuffled into the room, with Cameron going in backward, and Beth followed behind them. Gareth sounded slightly winded when he spoke, "Where do you want it?"

"Uhm..." Beth looked around the room, it was pretty spacious and there were a lot of options.

"Ohcomeon," Cameron was more breathless than Gareth and his words were strung together.

"Sorry, uhm, just there by the bed," Beth pointed in the direction she meant and they set it down with a huff on the left side of the bed.

"Is that good?" Gareth looked at the slightly crooked dresser and then at Beth.

"It's good enough," Cameron was bent over with his hands on his knees breathing heavily. "I volunteered for Red Cross, not U-Haul."

Beth laughed at him, he was the one that offered to help after all, and nodded her head, "It's perfect."

"Thanks you!" Cameron straightened himself up and began to leave the room, "have a good night Beth."

"Thanks for your help," Beth waved at his back as he exited the room leaving the door open.

"I'm gonna go find some clothes for you to put in that thing, so you can have some selection. I'll be right back," Gareth left the room and closed the door. Which Beth guessed meant she wasn't supposed to follow him.

While she waited she placed her painting on the dresser and leaned it against the wall behind it. Because the dresser was a little off kilter so was the painting, but Beth thought it added personality to it.

The items were both covered in a layer of dust and cobwebs and the thought of spiders came to Beth's mind. Even though they were in an apocalypse, Beth found spiders just as gross and terrifying as any other girl and she didn't like the idea of them crawling around in the dresser.

Beth opened the first drawer, there weren't any creepy crawlies inside, but instead there was a bunch neatly folded little girls clothing. The colours consisted of a lot of pastels that Beth herself would have dressed a child in. She pick up a cotton candy pink dress and unfolded it, holding it up in front up her. It was tiny, like something a toddler would wear, something like what Judith might have worn...

Beth felt the tears well up in her eyes and hugged the little dress close to her. Judith might not have been Beth's, but she cared for her like she was her own and loved that baby girl. The reason she ended up with Daryl after the prison fell was because she ran off the bus to try to find the kids. She wasn't able to find Judith, or any of the others though and she regretted not going back sooner.

There was a knock on the door, which was probably Gareth with the clothing he was getting for her, and Beth wiped her eyes and went to the door. Gareth was standing there with a pile that went from the bottom of his ribcage to his in to his chin. Beth moved out of the way and let him walk into the room and over to bed, where he set it all down and split it into two piles.

"I grabbed a bunch of stuff that looked like it'll fit you. Well at least better than those," Gareth motioned toward her clothing she was wearing at the moment, the clothes that were on her bed when she out of the shower this morning. "What's that?"

Beth saw his eyes go down to the dress bunch up in her hand, she forgot to put it back when Gareth came to the door. "Oh, I found it in the dresser drawer along with some other stuff."

"That's unusual, normally we check everything before it goes into storage. Sorry about that," Gareth went other to Beth and took the dress from her. He tugged it out of her hand really, she found herself not wanting to let it go.

"Its fine," Beth walked over to the dresser and started emptying it, "are there any kids in Terminus that these would be useful for?"

"Nah," Gareth started to help empty the drawers too. "We don't really like taking in small kids."

Beth stopped and gave him a look, "Why not?"

"Iunno. They aren't very useful, we like people that can pull their own weight."

"You wouldn't let me help carry a dresser even," Beth didn't like the idea of turning kids away at the gates, it seemed like a stupid reason not to let kids in because they couldn't do much, and they were helpless out there.

"There's a difference. You'll be able to help out in a matter of days, little kids can't for years," Gareth shrugged and started filling the top drawer with Beth's new clothing. When he was done he closed it and turned to where he'd put the kids clothes on the bed.

Beth bent at the waist and opened the second drawer, it was filled with more little kid clothes. She grabbed the first pile and started lifting it up, then she felt something crawling on her fingers and screamed.

"OHMYGOD," Beth's words were strung together like Cameron's when he was carrying the dresser. She dropped all the clothes and started flailing her arms around. She saw a tiny black thing go flying onto the floor and scurry away under the door to her bathroom.

Beth's panic was interrupted by Gareth's laughter. He was standing there hold his side and guffawing like a crazy person at her. "So let me get this straight...you're in a world of fresh eating monsters...and you're afraid of spiders?"

"Yes," Beth could feel her cheeks getting hot from embarrassment as Gareth went on laughing. "I just don't like them, okay."

Gareth saw that Beth was getting upset and tried stifled his laughter, "You're too funny Beth. You'll slash someone with a knife and then scream at a spider, it's great."

"A lot of people don't like spiders," Beth crossed her arms.

"I know, I know. I like that about you, you're really interesting," Gareth looked Beth up and down. The hungry look in his eyes made her uncomfortable. The air in the room seemed to change as he stared at her.

Beth cleared her throat, "We'll I'm going to go squish that spider before it tries to kill me in my sleep and then I'm going to go to bed. Thanks for showing me around today."

"Yeah, no problem," Beth watched him leave with children's clothes they'd taken out before the eight legged menace appeared and as soon as he was gone she swung open the bathroom door.

Finding/killing the creature took a lot of screaming and pumping herself up, but Beth did manage to finally kill it after multiple tries. After she indulged in taking another warm shower and then went through the clothes Gareth had brought her. She found a pair of pajama like shorts and an oversized white t-shirt that she threw on.

She noticed that the t-shirt had a palm sized red stained on it that she assumed to be blood. It looked like they'd attempted to bleach the blood out of it, but it didn't work. Gareth probably didn't even notice he grabbed it when he was getting everything. Beth took the shirt off and switch it for another. She'd give the shirt to him in the morning at breakfast.

Beth tossed the shirt onto the dresser by the painting and wriggled the tucked in sheet corners out from under the mattress. She got into the bed, which was softer than she expected and pulled the covers up around her. Feeling full and warm, Beth closed her eyes and went to sleep.

**AN: I like the idea of someone being afraid of spiders in the apocalypse it makes me chuckle to think of someone sending a knife through a walkers head then screaming like a little girl at a spider, I don't know. So this chapter is mostly more information about Terminus and whatnot, and some development for m version of Gareth. I hope it's enjoyable. **

**I'm working feverishly on the next chapter already. **

**Thank you for reading**


	10. Chapter 10

Every time Daryl moved his entire body felt like it might collapse into itself, but he couldn't stop. He wanted these bodies out of the way so that Rick or Carl or Michonne didn't have to see them. When the fight was over he'd gone around, putting his knife through each one of the marauder's skulls to make sure they didn't reanimate, and then he began dragging each of the corpses away from the car campsite. Michonne had offered to help, but Carl needed her more.

His injuries slowed him down a bit more than he anticipated and by the time he moved the last body (Joe) it was daylight. He didn't mind all that much though. He was using the time to think of what to say to the man he had presumed dead. There were so many things he wanted to say, but there were two things that needed to be addressed above the others first. Daryl wanted to tell Rick why he'd been with these evil men and wanted to tell Rick he understood that he had to do what he had to do.

He'd taken each body about half a mile away and after the last drag he knew exactly what to say. Daryl made his way back and went over it several times in his head. When he got back he saw Rick where he'd been since last. Daryl hovered a little ways away from Rick and watched him for a moment.

The man's hands were shaking and his clothing and scruff were covered in Joe and Dan's blood. Daryl grabbed a water bottle and rag from his back and walked over to Rick, he wet the rag and tried handing it to Rick.

"We should save it to drink," Rick objected.

"You can't see yourself, he can," Daryl nodded his head toward the car where Carl and Michonne had placed themselves to sleep. Rick took the rag after that, for his son's sake. With a deep breath Daryl sat down beside Rick as he wiped his face and took a few beats to think about everything one more time.

Daryl started off, "I didn't know what they were."

Everything that Daryl had planned say went out the window when he realized that this was Rick, a man he'd spent so much time with that he understood him in just a few words. Rick nodded his head and asked, "How'd you wind up with them?"

Daryl knew that Rick was going to ask him that, it was something he'd tried to repair himself wince dragging the bodies, but the words came out with an awful taste, "I was with Beth. We got out together. I was with her for a while."

There was a lull in the conversation and then Rick asked another question "Is she dead?"

Was Beth dead? He'd asked himself that question since she was taken. He wanted to search for her, yeah, but it was only on the small whim of faith that she'd given him. Daryl made eye contact with Rick and said the only thing he could honestly thin_k, _"She's just gone. After that, that's when they found me. I mean, I knew they were bad, but… they had a code. It was simple, stupid… but it was somethin'. It was enough."

Daryl didn't know how much Rick took out of what he said, but he had a feeling Rick picked up on what was left tacit. "And you were alone."

For Daryl that was no excuse for him to stay with those men and he continued on trying to explain himself, "Said they were lookin' for some guy, and last night they said that they spotted him. I was hangin' back, I was gonna leave. But I stayed. That's when I saw it was you three, right when you saw me…" Daryl thought about the next, if it was true or if he just wanted it to be, "…I didn't know what they could do."

Daryl couldn't look at Rick anymore, he was ashamed of himself for letting this happen. He felt the full responsibility for it. Everything that had happened since the prison was on his shoulders like always and now this was added on to it.

"It's not on you, Daryl," Rick was giving Daryl a compassionate look that he didn't feel like he deserved. "Hey. It's not on you". Daryl couldn't say anything, Rick was just dismissing everything that was weighing him down. "You bein' back with us here, now, that's everything."

Daryl swallowed hard and let that Rick was saying sink in.

"You're my brother."

The last part of that caught Daryl off guard. To both of them, brotherhood was something that was sacred. The last time Rick called someone his brother, it was Shane, someone who stood in the steed of a biological brother and someone he had grown up with and shared a bond with until the turn. Daryl's real brother was dead, but he missed Merle, even if he was an ass. In their type of brotherhood they carried each other's burdens. Daryl looked at Rick and felt more reassured than he ever had before.

Now that the first issue was addressed Daryl carried on to what he wanted to begin with, "Hey, what you did last night, anybody would've done that."

It was Rick's turn to pile his burdens. "No, not that."

Rick had been savage last night, but Daryl didn't believe it was because he was a savage. Rick was a good person faced with difficult situations, "Somethin' happened. That ain't you."

Rick seemed to disagree though, _"_Daryl, you saw what I did to Tyreese. It ain't all that, but that's me. That's why I'm here now, that's why Carl lives. I want to keep him safe. That's all that matters."

He had said what Daryl had been thinking, that he did it for his son. The will to sacrifice for what you wanted and needed was nothing new to Daryl Dixon.

**AN: Yup another scene straight out of the show with my own little pazazz to it. This scene with Rick and Daryl was so frigging heart wrenching (holla at my Brotp) it was absolute perfection and I hope I didn't butcher the hell out of it. **

**I just realized its Wednesday. I thought it was Tuesday all day and I was like, "yeah I'm actually uploading when I said I was gonna". But nope. The May Long Weekend messed me up, my bad. On a good note I don't have school Friday so I'll probably upload two or three chapters on that day. **

**I would like to thank everyone for reading and you're all absolutely amazing and I appreciate you guys all so much! xxxx**


	11. Chapter 11

Gareth had taken Beth back to her room after breakfast in the morning, and told her he'd come by later to get her when he was done with a council meeting he and helping paint maps. She had protested, telling him that she could help paint at least, but he came right back with the argument that yesterday was a big day for her and that she should take it easy.

He'd been looking down at her ankle when he said it; the bandaged was all gross and water stained from the copious amount of showers she'd been taking over the last two days. She had to admit it was a bit sore from all the walking she'd been doing yesterday and agreed to stay behind. Beth wished her ankle would heel so that it could stop being used as an excuse for her not to help and explore more. She remembered after that she'd promised herself that she'd leave when she was heeled though. Terminus was supposed to be temporary.

It made Beth mad at herself for getting sucked in not a two whole days into being at Terminus. She'd liked the idea of making her room homier and went with it. It hadn't been symbolizing her wanting to stay when she picked the painting and dresser out. It just who she was, Beth wanted to be comfortable in the places she was. But this was becoming too comfortable.

Beth shook her head and sat on her bed in a huff, thinking about Terminus and what she should do; going over all the pros and cons. When she couldn't think of it anymore, afraid she might explode, she laid down on her back and counted the ceiling tiles to keep her mind busy.

By the time she'd recounted them all twice Beth could feel her eye lids getting heavier and begging for sleep. One of the pros of Terminus that she'd been thinking about before counting and one of them was that she could fall asleep in a place that was a labyrinth to any outsiders and it was gave her a little sense of security.

**. . . **

The sound of machine guns firing filled Beth's ears and woke her up not two hours later. She had sat right up and was looking in all directions in her sleepy state trying to figure out what was going on. When she was fully awake and realized it was guns, her immediate thought was that they were under attack and she had to try to help.

But there was no way she could find her way outside, even he she had been taking the time to try to memorize it. She was unarmed and had no idea what was happening. All Beth could do was sit and listen to the endless rat-tat-tat of the guns going off. The last time she heard the sound of machine guns was the attack at the prison, they'd been fired wildly right up until the moment the prison completely fell.

Images of the battle with the Governor started flashing across Beth's eyes every time she blinked the longer she listened to whatever was going over outside. Her eyes would close for a tenth of a second and she'd see the Governor swinging the katana into her father's neck or see Maggie running off the bus to find Glenn. She found herself covering her ears and humming to try to tune it out, but it didn't work. Beth was breathing heavily with panic and confusion. The sound of the guns had triggered something inside her that she couldn't control.

When the firing stopped Beth was in a messy ball, with her knees tucked tightly into her chest, her eyed closed and her hands still pressed firmly against her ears. Her entire body was shaking. She couldn't find it in her to even move from her position on the bed until Gareth came bursting through her door ten minutes later.

Beth lowered her hands and looked up at him as he walked across the room to her with what looked like extreme concern on his face. "Oh thank god you're in here. I thought maybe when you heard the guns you'd try to get out and help…" Gareth had been talking and moving very fast and hadn't seen how pale she was at first, "…what's wrong?"

Even though she was still shaking, Beth manage to untuck her legs from her chest and sit up a bit. She bit her bottom lip, "I'm not weak."

"Beth I didn't say you were," Gareth sat down on the bed closer to Beth than she probably would have allowed if she wasn't feeling this way.

"I'm not weak," Beth repeated herself again and tried swallowing the lump building up in her throat.

"I know you're not weak. No girl that can kill a spider by herself is weak," Gareth smiled at Beth and extended his toward her, setting it lighting around her shoulder to comfort her. Beth laughed a short sort of hallow laugh and then looked at Gareth in the eye. He looked right back at her and they both let a few breathes pass. That's when she broke down.

She'd had her fair share moments where she couldn't hold back the tears, and this was one of those moments. She thought she had been getting stronger, and had been getting a better handle on her emotions. But clearly she'd been wrong.

In that moment she forgot the uncomfortableness he sometimes made her feel and Beth clung to Gareth. She had turned her body into and was almost on his lap sobbing into his shirt. He stroked her hair with his free hand and was maybe saying something soothing, but she couldn't hear him over her own mind. She was screaming at herself in her head to get it together, that Daryl wouldn't want her to cry. But once she started full on crying, she could never stop until she was all dried out.

**. . .**

Gareth stayed with her until Beth couldn't drop a single tear out of her eye to save her life. At that point his shirt was completely soaks with snot and tears and Beth had made space between them and was staring at it with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," Beth mumbled. She was ashamed of herself.

"For what?" Gareth shrugged his usual shrug and smiled at her like he had before. "There's no shame in crying."

"In a world like this, crying can get you killed," Beth had probably cried more than anyone she had met since the world fell to shit and she knew exactly what she was talking about. Either the killing could be by your own hand or by those who think you're too weak.

"Beth, I hold you that we aren't going to let anything hurt you here," Gareth bravely started to inch his body closer to hers again.

"Then what was that outside?" The last of the sentence came out as a little hiccup.

"People were trying to kill us," Beth made a face at his explanation. He'd just said that she was safe here then said people were trying to kill them? That was the opposite of safe. "But we can get you trained with a gun and you can defend yourself and have your own weapon once you're truly part of Terminus."

"I know how to use a gun. Why were they trying to kill you?"

"Terminus has shelter, it has food and it has water. It's a dream for those who find it. But people can be selfish, Beth. Those people wanted us dead and wanted Terminus for themselves," Gareth ran his fingers through his dirty blonde hair. "But it's not like you can blame them. Everyone wants to do what they think is best for the people they care for. Even if it involves hurting others. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yeah I do," Beth nodded her head, it's what everyone at the prison was willing to do, and it's what the Governor maybe meant to do. "So where are they?"

"Who?" Gareth blinked at Beth.

"The people that tried to kill you?" Beth wiped her nose with her sleeve, feeling a little back to normal and tired again.

"They're dead," Gareth got up and started heading out, he was catching on that Beth was feeling better. "We had to hurt them for the greater good. I gotta get back out there and start a meeting" Beth got up to see him out. She paused for a moment in the hallways with him.

"Thank you, for coming to check on me, and for staying with me."

"No problem. I'm vouching for you and you're my responsibility," Gareth took a step toward her and they were half a foot apart. "I'll bring you some lunch when the meetings done."

"Sounds good," Beth smiled at Gareth as he started to turn away. But he turned back to her and planted a kiss onto her forehead.

Beth was taken by surprise by his warm lips against her skin, but didn't back away. She had just spent a good while crying and she guessed that maybe he just wanted to reassure her or something, the way a family member right of. It only lasted a quick second and then he disappeared down the dim hallway.

Beth went back into her room and closed the door behind her. She felt a complete new exhaustion from all the crying she had done and she felt the need to wash her face.

While she was rubbing the cloth across her face she added to her pros list how nice of Gareth it was to come bursting into her room just to make sure she was okay. It didn't occur to her until later that the door was locker and that she was supposed to have the only key.

**AN: Gareth is so full of shit hey? I know I said two or three chapters but most of you know by now that I am a dirty little liar. Let me know what you think of this chapter and of Gareth. I'm always happy when I get reviews :)**

**Ahh we're already on chapter 11, where does the time go?**


	12. Chapter 12

Daryl crossed his arm and leaned up against the inside of the cold train car as he watched Rick and the others bunch up a bit. They were all talking at once in kind of hushed voices asking questions to one another and all the words were getting jumbled up. Rick had just finished telling everyone that these Terminus folk were screwing with the wrong people, and it somehow sent everyone into action, trying to get information.

"Okay," Rick's voice still has an animalistic edge in it and he didn't sound like he usually did when he talked strategy, but it did the job of silencing everyone. Rick cleared his throat a bit and sound slightly more normal, "One at a time. I want you to tell me everything you know about this place."

Maggie, Sasha, Bob and all the rest of them exchanged glances to see who was going to speak first. Surprisingly Eugene spoke before any of them, "What this here is a straight up six legged octopus in a jelly jar situation."

"What the hell did you just say?" Daryl was baffled by whatever had just come out the mouth of the man who looked like an even bigger redneck than him. He looked over at Glenn and saw everyone do the same.

"What he means is the place is screwed up," Glenn translated and then tried the best he could to explain Terminus. "They're extremely loyal to each other and are run by this guy, Gareth. He runs the whole show, he told us it was run by a group like at the prison, but he calls all the shots and they fall in line behind him. "

"I could tell, he had a self-righteous air to him," Rick's hand went to the scruff around his jaw and he scratched it, "What else? How'd you all end up in here?"

"We were here for two days before anyone really did anything to us. They showed us around, fed us, and then the third day…" Glenn's eyes shot sideways at Maggie.

"Gareth told all of us we weren't welcome at Terminus anymore. He said they didn't have a need for us. He told Maggie he could stay however long she wanted though, said he'd 'vouch' for her. He liked the looks of Maggie," Rosita's hand went off of her hips and made air quotations when she said the word _vouch_.

"What'd mean you vouch?" Daryl didn't like how the word sounded familiar to him.

"They've claimed you basically and you are allowed to belong here, only if they like you though," Rosita's hands where back on her hips.

"They tried to separate us all and Maggie fought back, we got our weapons taken away the first day, all we really had were our hands. Maggie slapped him so hard he probably saw stars," the corner of Glenn's lips twitched a bit, as if seeing Gareth slapped was in some way a little bit of justice. Daryl had to agree.

"As you can tell, he didn't 'ppreciate me slappin' the shit outta him and they had a lot more man power over us. They stuck guns to our head and swore they would shoot if we made a single wrong move," Maggie's twang came out almost exactly like her sister's, "They led us here and told us we were going to make one fine meal."

"What'd you just say?" Michonne gave Maggie a look like she must have misheard her.

Glenn took control of the conversation when Maggie started to look uncomfortable, "These people…they're…they cannibals."

"What?" Rick's face twisted in disgust at Glenn's statement and Daryl felt his doing the same. When they were running he'd seen something, even in his flight state it was hard to miss the tarps, but the thought of cannibalism didn't pop into Daryl's head. Maybe torture, but not that.

"They cut people up, fry 'em up and eat them, okay?" the man with the handlebar mustache, Abraham, cut it right to the chase.

"Are you sure?" Daryl watched Michonne instinctively move closer to Carl, "Are you sure they weren't just trying to scare you?"

"We all saw the tarps, Michonne," Rick had probably been the first to catch on and had been waiting for confirmation, "did you see any cows or pigs of any sort that could supply the amount of meat they had? No, Glenn's telling the truth."

"Sure as hell wish he wasn't," Daryl uncrossed his arms and pushed himself off the wall of the car.

"Yeah, me and you both, you didn't eat any of their food," Daryl couldn't tell if Glenn was trying to make a joke of it or not, "you four have probably been out in the woods eating Daryl's rabbits and squirrels since the prison fell."

"We just found Daryl this morning," Carl, had been quietly listening and taking in all the information, finally spoke up.

"So, you were alone out there?" Maggie turned to Daryl and he wondered if maybe she was thinking of her little sister. He didn't know exactly what he was supposed to tell her. Telling Rick had been one thing, but telling Maggie would be as hard as it could get for him.

"Not exactly," Daryl rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

Carl, the damn kid, couldn't keep his mouth shut and before Daryl could try to say anything else he made another contribution to the conversation. "He was with a group of men, before he was with Beth."

The mood shifted suddenly in the train car as Maggie stared at Daryl.

"Who's Beth?" a girl with short dark hair who hadn't introduced herself yet joined them.

Daryl was amazed that Maggie hadn't said anything about her own sister to the people she was traveling with. Hadn't she tried searching for her at all? Did she think that Beth was at Terminus and she'd just reunite with her here?

"Beth's my little sister, Tara," Maggie turned her head quickly to the girl with the short haired girl and then back to Daryl, "How did… is she?"

Daryl took a deep breath, like he had when he went to explain to Rick, and tried to remember what he'd planned to say to him. That was the kind of explanation he needed to give Maggie. Everyone was silent and staring at him. If he could he would have used as little words as possible and head quickly out of site.

"Daryl…" Maggie took a step closer to him and had and extremely sad look in her eye. "What happened?"

Knowing he had to tell her, Daryl took one last deep breath and was shocked when his voice didn't come out as soft as he thought it would be. "When we got out of the prison together, we were on the road for a long time, two, three weeks maybe. We were constantly on the run, the walkers seemed to be every damn place we went…"

Daryl realized he was just added filler to his story and that's not really what Maggie wanted to know. It didn't matter what happened before the moon shiner's cabin. "Anyway, I let the girl use my cross bow, was teaching her how to track, and she got her foot caught in a bear trap."

Everyone was quiet, listening intently to Daryl. Some with pity in their eyes and he guessed they were probably thinking how unfortunate it was that he ended up with Beth. Daryl shook his head a bit and tried to ignore it, knowing he wasn't unfortunate. "I took her to this mortuary, the place was clean and safe. I thought we were safe there at least." Daryl had relived Beth being taken a million times in his head, but explaining it to them all seemed so much more real.

"We were eating, and there was a dog, he was there before… I thought it was just him again. I should have checked before I opened that door… I should have… there was a small hoard, but enough to make a shit storm. I told her to get out of the house, 'cause she was hurt. When I made it out..."

"Daryl, where is my sister?"

"I don't know. A car drove off with her in it." Daryl's shoulders slumped in defeat again. "I chased that thing all night."

"You did?" Maggie looked at Daryl with her hands lightly clasped in front of her mouth. Maybe Maggie was surprised he kept her around for that long, that maybe it would have just been a relief to him if Beth was gone.

"Yeah. Couldn't let her get away that easy."

**AN: I haven't updated in a while because school is absolutely crazy right now. There's a teacher strike and shit makes it hard to focus on anything but school work and passing and it's just insane. But I'm back and have a few more chapters lined up already.**

**Let me know what you thought of this chapter. :)**


	13. Chapter 13

Daryl had to swallow what he just said for himself. There was truly no way he could have ever left that blonde. Even if she wanted to get away from him.

"Thank you, Daryl."

Daryl gave Maggie – who was moving toward him like she might hug him – a dumbfounded look. "What are you thankin' me for?"

"You took care of Beth. I know you're not the most patient of people and you probably lost your temper with her a lot, but you didn't leave her," Maggie closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around Daryl's neck. His arms remained at his sides.

Daryl backed away from the hug at first, but let Maggie hold onto him for a few moments. Everyone was still completely focused Daryl and his story about Beth and where watching silently. Daryl shrugged a bit to let Maggie know she should stop. She got the picture and let go. Daryl sighed at her, "You shouldn't be huggin' me, I lost your sister."

Maggie gave Daryl the same look Rick had that morning. That stupid, forgiving look that was supposed to excuse everything. "That's not your fault. You helped protected her the best you could. You were even teaching her how to track, that's what you said right? There's always hope."

Daryl just nodded at that, Beth was a hell of a student to teach, but was getting pretty good at it. The ankle had just been a bump in the road for the amount of progress she made. He'd trained her for weeks after the moon shiner's cabin and before the mortuary.

"Dude. You let her touch your bow?" Glenn raised his eyebrows at Daryl.

"Yeah, what of it?" Daryl moved uncomfortably and avoided the strange looks that were being given to him by the people who knew his cross bow was an extension of his arm. The rest of the people in the car looked a little lost in the conversation, since they didn't even really know who Beth was.

Rick, thankfully, interrupted the awkwardness and tried to get them back on track. "The powdered milk outside, is that what they're feeding you?"

Glenn answered, but was still giving Daryl a look. "We refused to eat anything else."

"Maybe with no meat on our bones they'll decide we're not as tasty as we look," Abraham patted Rosita on the shoulder. She a glanced at his stomach, which was still looking bulky.

"Yeah, you better start fasting," Rosita rolled her eyes and sounded exasperated.

"I have hardly eaten anything since that feast I had myself when we got here, and you can trust me that when I say that came right back up and out."

Daryl wondered if everyone had thrown up. This man, who looked pretty unshakable had. The scent of all the waste that had been gathering in the car filled their nostrils as soon as they'd stepped in there. A lot of it had to of been them trying to get the meat out of their systems.

"How long have you been in here?" Rick continued to try to interject in the weird banter that was starting.

Abraham's facial expression changed suddenly and he answered, "We've been in here for over a week," he looked over Rick, Carl, Michonne and Daryl – sizing them up and deciding if they were serious and capable of getting out. "Now listen. If you have a plan you get us outta here let's hear it. I've got precious cargo and we're already supposed to be more than halfway to Alexandria by now."

"What's in Alexandria?" Rick asked and Daryl tried to decide what exactly their precious cargo was.

"A safe zone, where we can help stop this thing," Rosita turned and looked at Eugene, who'd been looking at her cleavage as the conversation went on. "Eugene is a scientist, he knows how it started and how to end it."

"That's impossible," Daryl scoffed at her. The man with the mullet looked about as much of a scientist as Merle. And even if he was they'd been to places that promised that kind of stuff before. Places like the CDC. Jenner chose to cop out instead and lit the place up. He had hardly given them enough time to escape the blast.

"It's not," Abraham stared him down and Daryl just stared back at him. He was going to share his thoughts but he decided he'd let Abraham live in his delusion. Daryl knew better than to argue while they were stuck in this situation with such tight space.

"If we can get everyone out, we will," Rick looked tired with everyone not giving him the information he wanted. "I want to know if there's any exits, besides climbing fences and the front gate."

"They kept us under pretty strict watch. There was never a time we could really explore. They showed us what they could wanted to without revealing what they were," Maggie gave Rick what he wanted. The people that they had been with for so long understood that Rick might not be their leader anymore but answered him when he asked. Especially when he was tired or on edge.

"We could charge them when they come to feed us. It's normally only a few of them. They think they're safe because we don't have weapons, but the fence is only meters away," Rosita suggested a plan but Daryl was skeptical.

Abraham seemed to be too, "That's too risky. We need to play a better hand to ensure Eugene's safety."

"To ensure of all our safety," Rick's had went onto his son's shoulder. Carl had remained quiet since his little moment of sharing. "My son's and people's safety is the most important thing to me."

"Your right hand man said we were your friends now too. Does that include us?" Abraham stroked his mustache, "If we're going into this with you, I want to know you're not going to sacrifice us for your wellbeing."

Daryl could see Rick considering the offer in his mind, maybe thinking of saying no. But Rick knew as well as anyone that they needed the numbers. "You have my word. We're all getting out of here alive or were going to die trying," Rick's eyes narrowed again. "As soon as we have a concrete plan, they are all going to wish they hadn't locked us up like animals."


	14. Chapter 14

Beth sat on her stool with her tongue sticking out slightly from her mouth and bending to the corner. There were creases in between her eyebrow from how hard she was concentrating on painting the thin red line onto the map. When she finished, she leaned back to inspect her work and Beth was pleased at how well it had actually come out. The last thing she had to do was put TERMINUS in big white letters and she'd be done.

"Looking good," the girl who had introduced herself as Becca was peering over at the map, "now make them about ten times faster."

In the time it had taken Beth to make one, Becca had finished about six, they weren't nearly as neat though. "I just wanna make sure people can read them exactly. I know I'd have trouble finding my way with a messy map."

The truth was Beth didn't even know what she was painting though. Gareth had taken her to the warehouse to help out because, as of two days ago, one of the people here had actually been shot and killed by the attackers and they were down one person. Gareth thought Beth would make a nice replacement, since she'd been demanding to help anyway. If she tried to figure out where this map was supposed to start, it'd take her hours. Gareth outlined what he wanted Beth to paint and told her he'd be back in about an hour to get her.

It was really a relief to not have him constantly shadowing her actually. From the time of the attack to now, Gareth had been completely focused on her. It was surprising to Beth that not even once did someone come up to him and whisper in his ear and he didn't even get whisked away to a meeting. It was just her and him and occasionally Cameron. They would walk around a lot, but Gareth didn't ever take her anywhere new. All the places he took her where what he'd shown her on the very first real day and nothing new since.

Beth guessed he might be deciding to integrate her further into Terminus more now because he was leaving her with the others and he'd show her more soon. So she didn't push him. Besides she liked the painting.

"Do you have family out there?" Becca finished her seventh map and glanced over at Beth. "Gareth told lots of us you had a partner. Are you hoping they seem 'em?"

"No I don't have a family out there," Beth probably answered a little too quickly. "I just want people to be safe and happy. Even if I don't have any close relations with them."

"What about your partner?" Becca raised an eyebrow at Beth.

That was an excellent question. What about Daryl? Beth could feel that her ankle was getting better, it would be completely healed in a matter of days. But she was still contemplating what she could do. To leave or to stay.

Beth might be okay out in that world now alone. She was still a little blonde that weighed one hundred pounds soaking wet and the only reason she got this far was because of the protection of others. However she did learn how pulled her own weight with Daryl. She knew how to light a fire, and she could find shelter and might be able to make a snare or two. She was certainly much better at killing walkers now than before. But all the things she had learned were done in the summer and autumn months. Winter was well on its way. Terminus was a well-supplied fortress that she could use. It' also be much easier for Daryl to find her here than for her to go out with the risk of freezing or starving to death.

"You know, if you choose to stay you could vouch for you partner like Gareth vouched for you." Becca really caught Beth's attention then. Gareth had somewhat explained vouching but not fully because Beth was famished. Beth had thought only leaders could vouch for people, but apparently not.

"Really?" Beth could vouch for her whole family and keep them safe if they were still alive and found their way here. Not that she would expect Gareth to ignore her if she'd asked him.

Gareth cared for Beth. That much was obvious, but she couldn't tell in what way exactly. She'd wasn't too good at readying the signs until they were right smack in her face. Daryl had been trying to tell her something in the funeral home and she didn't even realize he thought she already knew she was the reason until thinking about it later.

"Yup," the other people painting around them had been listening in on the conversation and all nodded their heads. "You're gonna be one of us if you want and we trust in our people's judgement. Gareth chose to vouch for you and we agree it was a good choice."

"She does seem like a lovely person," one of the men Beth had forgotten the name of spoke to Becca like Beth wasn't sitting right there.

"Yes, anyone she was with had to be just as lovely," Becca went back to her painting along with everyone else. Beth tried hard to suppress her smile at that comment. Most of the people she'd been with were rough around the edges, especially Daryl. If he showed up, they'd be in for a surprise.

"Let's go to lunch, I hear we're getting a special snack today," the man put down his brush and made the announcement to everyone.

"Is it something other than just meat?" besides the occasional side of vegetables the only thing that Beth had eaten was the meat. She wasn't complaining. She was putting the weight on she had lost and that was good, but Beth wouldn't of minded some fruit.

"Still meat, but I think they're makin' bacon," Becca pushed herself out of her chair and started following the rest of them out. Beth remained seated. She was supposed to wait for Gareth and it had not been an hour yet. She wanted to follow the rules, even if the word bacon made her mouth water.

"I'll be there soon, I just was wanna wait for Gareth to get me," Beth waved at the remaining people, who stopped at the door to wait for her it looked like, and started a new map.

She tried hard to ignore the thoughts of crispy, crunchy bacon running though her mind.

**AN: Hola compadres. I'm very sorry I haven't posted earlier than this. I'm actually pretty sick at the moment and this is the first time I've moved this much in about a week. I'm posting two chapters today though because I feel actually decent now and want to push my luck.**

**Now where's that rascal Gareth? **


	15. Chapter 15

Daryl was sitting on the floor of the train car, next to a sleeping Glenn and Maggie, studying his finger nails. Everyone was sleeping, even though you could tell it was daylight outside from the crack in the sliding door. They were all exhausted. Mostly from the lack of water and food. Daryl however was still use to not sleeping.

For the last two days they had been left in silence. No one came to feed them or speak to them since Gareth had thrown Daryl and them in there. They were trying to scare them or something. Show that they had all the dominance. Which was pretty true. The people of Terminus were the dominant ones. They could decide their fate at any moment. They were like their God.

If he had is crossbow with him, he could have cleaned the bolts and distracted himself like he use to when he didn't want to think about Beth, but he didn't. This time he was trying not to think about the possibility of becoming a meal. Which is what was going to happen if they didn't escape. Even with the days of silence they were about to as close to getting out has they had been the first day. Anyone could be next. Or the people they had in the other containers.

They'd heard yelling from a storage container when they were running through Terminus. He didn't know how many people were even in there exactly or who, but now he knew what they were for. Sick bastards. The idea that it could be Beth in one of those containers had crossed his mind. But it seemed unlikely to him. Or maybe he just didn't want to think it was likely.

Daryl glanced down at Maggie and Glenn. He was on his back and she was curled up into him with her head resting on his upper chest. They had told him that they were separated after the attack on the prison and they looked endlessly for each other. He admired their commitment, but he still couldn't believe that Maggie didn't think about Beth once. That girl could get into you mind so easily and it had been impossible for him to forget her, not that he wanted to...

Suddenly there was a metallic clang, followed by another and then another. Daryl sat a little straighter, beginning to get to his feet and everyone around him stirred. Rick was the first one completely up with his hands on Carl, shoving the kid behind him.

"What the hell!" Glenn was the next to be up with Maggie by his side, holding onto her. The banging continued and they would hear laughter coming outside.

The banging became louder and louder along with the laughter. Some voices even began to sing a song, as if they were children playing a game.

_"Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?"_ The singing became more vocal and the hands of several people were still hitting up against the side of the car, only slightly more rhythmically.

_"The big bad wolf!"_

_"The big bad wolf!"_

"What the hell are they doing?" Michonne's eyes shot around every time a hand made contact with the metal. It was always in a different spot. Daryl guessed they must be circling about it.

"Its fine, they're just trying to scare us. They'll probably throw milk in and leave," Sasha tried to reassure everyone, but the tone in her voice gave herself away.

"Everyone stand your ground," Rick's hand went to his belt, forgetting it didn't have a gun strapped to it. "No one gets taken."

The song finished and they could hear someone shushing the rest. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Then the sound of feet walking around the car broke that silence again. Daryl strained to listen. There were far more than the one or two people that supposedly fed them.

When the sound of footsteps ceased, there was three more hits to the door of the car, like someone might be knocking and the door started to slide open. "May I come in?"

The question was followed by laughter from those behind him as Gareth and about a dozen other people entered the car. Daryl could feel his feet backing up, along with rest of his group, to the other end of the car. They were moving back like cornered animals. The very thing Rick had said they weren't.

Gareth cleared his throat. "So, who_ is_ afraid of the big bad wolf?"

No one said anything. They were supposed to hold their ground. Besides Gareth was some punk ass kid. He might have been charismatic and believed he was a leader, but the singing proved to be childish. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a minute or so, Gareth smiled, he had a calculating look on his face. "That one. We can take her."

Gareth's arm extended and his finger pointed in the direction of Tara. From the corner of his eye he could see her back further away from the menacing stares Gareth's group was giving her.

"There's no way in hell," Rosita spoke up and stepped in front of Tara to block anyone's way. "No one in here is afraid of you."

"Oh are you still mad that I didn't prefer you over the lovely Maggie?" Gareth laughed at looked over at Maggie with a confident smirk. "I'm sorry Rosita but I'm just not attracted to you in that way. You try far too hard with at tied up shirt."

This boy was such a jackass. Daryl couldn't stand him. "Listen, you're nothin' but a kid. You really think you and your little friends can fight off all of the adults?"

"I think we have a fair chance," there was the clicking of safeties behind Gareth and Daryl could tell that every single one of them had a gun. "I could just take the _real_ kid if you don't want Tara gone so badly."

There was a low growl and Daryl knew it was from Rick. Someone was threatening Carl again. "You're not touching my son."

"See, I think we are." Gareth started walking toward their group, with his pack following. His own hand gun went up and he held it to Rick's head. "Although, I'd much rather take Tara if you all would so kindly move out of the way. More meat you see."

Daryl's eyes darted around. There were at least four people still guarding the half open door. They had shot guns. The rest of his group were armed with just hand guns. Nothing else. They were smart enough not to bring any extra weapons in. Most of them were Maggie's age or older. They were surrounding them so as that they were in a loose circle. Mostly closer to Rick than anyone else. They might have a fair shot in fighting back.

"Take her."

Suddenly there were three people slamming into Rick and holding him against the wall. He was breathing heavily and yelling something. Daryl turned his head to see guns fly up and held up to everyone faces. When he turned his head back he was staring straight down the barrel of someone's gun. "I hope you know how to use that."

Daryl's arm fist connected with the stomach of the gun holder and he grabbed the person's wrist just in time to have the bullet sent out through the roof. In second everyone else was moving, trying to get away from their restrainers.

Maggie and Glenn were being held with their arms behind their backs, yelling vulgar things at Gareth, who seemed to have his hands free. They were whipping their bodies around furiously but couldn't get free. Abraham, Rosita, Eugene and Tara were backed right into the farthest corner and Abraham was trying to his best to protect all three of his them. Sasha and Bob weren't in his line of vision up Daryl did get a glimpse of Michonne and Carl darting across the car, maybe trying to get to Rick or the door.

Someone collided into Daryl, sending him into the wall across from Rick and the fighting ceased almost immediately after. Abraham tried to get one more good swing in, but the shot sent past him as a warning stopped him.

There was a mixture of voices yelling still though and then he saw someone one dragging Tara by her short dark hair out of jumbled group and to the door. She was also screaming and her hands were flying aimlessly around, trying to find something to grab onto to keep her from being taken. But there was nothing.

"Now take this as a warning," Gareth went over to Daryl and held his gun centimetres away from his bicep. "Try to fight back and..."

Without another word Gareth's finger squeezed the trigger and an agonising, white hot pain was sent through Daryl's arm as the bullet went through his limb and exited out the other side.


	16. Chapter 16

_"Why did you do it?"_

_"Huh?" Beth looked up from the fire and tucked a loose strand of hair from her pony behind her ear. She was sitting with her legs tucked under her and she'd been fanning the fire up a bit, but not so much that it could be seen from far away._

_They had just settled down for the night, having been walking all day after they burnt down the moonshiner's cabin. Daryl wanted to make sure they were as far away from that fire as they could be, fire attracted walkers and that fire was large enough that to attract a very unwanted hoard. _

_"Why'd you try to kill yourself? I know it wasn't for attention..." Daryl felt like such an ass for saying that to her earlier. He'd heard some stuff about it back on the farm, but back then she was just Hershel's daughter and he didn't really read too much into it. _

_"Daryl, we really don't have to go into this. I know you didn't really mean it," Beth smiled at him with her kind eyes and tried to dismiss the conversation. _

_"You don't like talkin' 'bout it?" _

_Beth looked back at him, this time with sadder eyes, "Not really, I feel weak when I talk about it and a Iil' ashamed."_

_"Why?" Daryl was surprised by his persistence. He wasn't normally one to try to push conversation. _

_"Well... I guess it was selfish of me, y'know? Like there's people that fight for their lives every day and it's a gift and there I was wantin' to throw my life away while sitting in a cushy bed._

_I can always use the reasoning that my mom died, but the more I think about it the more I realize that's not how she'd of wanted me to act."_

_"Hmm," Daryl nodded his head as Beth explained. He knew she felt awkward talking about it, but she was still willing to share, maybe with a bit of reluctance, but not much._

_"I think I did it because I didn't think I had a chance in hell of surviving mostly. I was really sad about my mom and she was a fighter...but she got turned...and I thought that I'd get picked off sooner or later."_

_"You can take care of yourself pretty well now," Beth had sworn up and down to him that she could when she went on her wild escapade to find booze. "The trick you played with the wine bottle would have won you a bar fight for sure."_

_Beth laughed at that, he didn't know if she thought he was being sarcastic or not, but he really wasn't. The girl might have been more of a nanny before, but she was getting better at killing walkers at least._

_"Do you think I'd be good with a crossbow," Beth teasingly reached and grabbed his bow. "I did say I never shot one, but it'd like to..."_

_Daryl jerked forward, ready to snatch it away from her, but he stopped when he noticed her form. She was holding and aiming it pretty decent actually – not good – but decent. _

_Daryl's hand went up to his lip and he picked at it a bit, the way he always did when he was thinking. "Okay, put it down before you accidentally shoot me in the head or something." _

_Beth set it back down in the spot it had been beside Daryl and went back to her fire once more. Daryl sat there, still thinking. He was considering something that was probably just stupid, but without giving her a chance how would he ever know._

_Daryl cleared his throat and Beth's attention was back on him, "Maybe I could train you up and bit and teach you how to use it."_

_"Really?" Beth gave him a look like he had gone absolutely crazy, it was after all a miracle that he let her touch the bow at all. _

_"I guess. I'll try not to manhandle you too much though," Beth made a face at him, they were both recalling her previous 'lesson'._

_"You're one hundred percent serious?" Beth couldn't help but let an amused smile creep onto her face. _

_Daryl nodded at her and the smile got even bigger._

_"Thanks, Daryl!"_

**. . .**

"Daryl?"

Daryl moved slightly from the position he was in against the side do the car. Someone was calling his name. "Daryl?"

He couldn't tell who it was exactly but as soon as he shifted his body, he felt the pain in his right arm and his eyes shot open. The voice had belonged to Maggie (or at this moment three Maggies). She was squatting in front of him with both of her hands on either side of his face.

"Oh thank God. He's good," Maggie turned her head to the crowd that was standing above them. "Can I have so something to wrap his arm with?"

Daryl's vision was focusing slowly and now there were only two of each person. He watched the Rositas untie their over shirt and pass it to the Maggies. He clenched his teeth, ignoring the pain, and spoke, "Did they take Tara?"

They were all down to their single forms now and every single one of their faces dropped at that question. Glenn squatted down next to Maggie, who was ripping up the shirt and trying to make a large bandage out of it, and informed Daryl. "Yeah man, but you did everything you could."

Dammit. Daryl let out a huff and put his head back against the wall. "Is everyone else...JESUS GIRL!"

"SORRY!" Maggie had been attempting to wrap his arm while he wasn't paying attention and it did not go as she had planned.

Daryl looked down at his arm and saw the mess that'd been made. There was a lot of blood. Some of it was smeared from Maggie trying to wrap it, but most of it was near the wound. The entry wound that is. He could feel the exit wound on the other side up couldn't turn his head enough to see it. By how badly it hurt, he guessed it went right through a muscle.

"Okay, don't move, you already lost enough blood," Maggie was back at wrapping the bandage around his bicep and concentrating extremely hard. It took a few tries and Daryl wanting to strangle her, but finally she decided that her wrapping was up to par. "That's gonna have to do. I'm sorry, Beth and Daddy were the ones that did this stuff."

"Its fine, Maggie. What we want to know is how badly the shot it gonna to affect him," Rick was at the front of the group gathered around Daryl, looking quizzically at his arm.

"Again Rick, I'm not too sure. It's not gonna kill him if that's what you're asking. But I think it will need to be stitched up at some point."

"Oh good to know Maggie, are you going to ask the cannibals to stitch it up or?" Rosita rolled her eyes.

"I'm fine. I don't need no stitches," Daryl started to move enough to be able to stand up. Maggie helped him more than he'd care to admit and he was dizzy, but he didn't need anyone worrying about it.

"Okay now that we have that taken care of. We should talk about how absolutely and completely unnecessary that was! Eugene had a gun to his head," Abraham moved so that he was in the front of the group and in Daryl's face. "You put him in jeopardy and you and your captain promised us no risky business."

"So you were just gonna let the girl get taken without a fight?" Daryl could feel the anger boiling up inside him. He did not give a single shit about the so called scientist if they were willing to let anyone die to keep him safe. This time he was the one to move closer and his chest was pressing up against Abraham's.

"HEY!" Rick forced himself in between the two men. "Both of you need to calm down. We are not turning against each other. It was reckless but there's nothing we can do about it now."

"Keep him under control or we're all going to end up dead," Abraham stalked off to the other side of the car and Rosita and Eugene followed. Eugene more sheepishly than her.

The situation wasn't going to be defused so easily. Even though they has made a promise or whatever, there were different things wanted and needed. It might have been reckless but not trying was not an option. They needed to get their priorities straight or else they'd all be at each other's throats like the cannibals.

**AN: Hey everyone! I feel like it's been so long since I updated! I apologize, however it was out of my hands. School has been hella crazy. I don't even know if there is anymore school left because of the strike that is happening. But ayy now that I'm most likely done for the year I can write because who needs to ever go outside in the summer? **

**This hiatus is slowly killing me but just so you all know there's only 118 ish days left until season 5! **

**thanks for reading everyone. :)  
**


	17. Chapter 17

Gareth had a tendency of not showing up when Beth was absolutely starving. The hour was well up and she' managed to finish five maps and there was still no sigh of him. She swore to herself that she was going to wait patiently for him to come and get her though.

The sound of a gun caught her attention however, a person that had been around them less than her might have mistaken it for a truck backfiring, but she knew it was a gun. A few minutes later, another shot went off. Only two. There weren't any more after that.

Beth contained her curiosity about the mysterious sound of guns. This time it didn't send to into a sobbing ball, which she was thankful for, but it was interesting that there were only two shots. Gareth was taking him time showing up however and Beth was beginning to wonder if it had something to do with him.

When she finally couldn't keep the curiosity at bay, Beth got off the stool and went to the big door that was the only entrance and exit to the room (there was a few others but they were locked and Gareth said it was just broom cupboards and weapon storage, it made sense why they were locked). She remembered that she had to turn left down the hallway, which had no lighting was so ever, and then she'd have to round two of three corners to get out of the warehouse.

She did feel a little bad, constantly disobeying wasn't her thing, but she hoped that just maybe standing outside the warehouse wouldn't be a big deal. Beth kept going down the hallway and was almost at the first turn she'd have to round before she heard two set a footsteps. She was going to scurry back to the painting room, but she didn't when she heard her name.

"What about Beth? What are you gonna tell her that was?" The footsteps both stopped.

"Iunno, maybe corpses on the fence. It doesn't matter what I tell her."

The voices were hushed, but Beth knew for sure that one was Gareth. Taking a deep, brave breath, Beth took a few silent steps forward and peered ever so slightly around the corner. The two people were standing at the other end of the hallway by the one of the turns. She wouldn't of ever been able to heard what they were saying if she had remained in the painting room.

"Why not?" Beth knew she recognized the voice, but couldn't place it just yet.

"Because, she is dense as hell," Gareth laughed a laugh that Beth had never heard from him before. It had more malice in it than anything. "I mean, we kidnapped the idiot and she still choice to stay with us."

Beth narrowed her eyes at his figure, even if he couldn't see it. Jackass.

"That's true, I thought you had better taste honestly," the voice belonged her Cameron. She was almost certain of it.

"Let's get real here, Cameron. She might not be the brightest candle in the dark, but she is hot," Gareth confirmed that it was Cameron and the confirmation was followed by unpleasant laughs from both of them.

When the laughing ceased, Cameron spoke again, "But what _are _you going to tell her?"

The way Gareth said it, she would tell he was smiling, "Maybe we should tell her the truth."

"You can't be serious?"

"So what if I am? She's been here long enough, and it's not like she's going to leave either way. The girl likes the meat too much."

"So initiation?"

"Initiation. Go tell Mary to hold up."

The footsteps began again, one set her way and the other heading back out of the warehouse. Beth carefully took her long silent strides – basically she was running – back to the painting room. She made it back to her stool and paintbrush just in time, Gareth entered the room about two seconds later.

"Hey Beth," Gareth walked over to her, placed his hand on her shoulder, and looked over it to see her work. "You're making good progress for a newbie."

"Thanks," Beth's response was flat. She was acting like a kicked puppy. She knew she was better than that, so she plastered a smile as convincing and fake as Gareth's onto her face and looked at him.

"So I bet you're hungry, I'm sorry I was late," Beth felt his hand trail for a second near her spine and then it was back by his side. "We had to deal with some stuff."

"Oh yeah, I heard the shots, what was that all about?" Beth watched his eyes, to see if anything flashed across them for a second, to tell that he was lying.

"I can show you if you want. I think you've been here long enough," Gareth chose to tell the truth like he'd said to Cameron apparently. "I think it's time you got initiated."

Beth kept the smile on her face and replied, "Sounds good with me."

"Okay let's go."

**. . .**

When they got closer to the common area, where they normally ate, Beth could hear something, chanting. It got louder as they got closer and it sounded like all of Terminus was in there. Beth could feel her palms getting sweaty. The idea of initiation was scaring her shitless. They didn't have initiation at the prison. You were either in or out.

The entire walk over there, Gareth talked and Beth listened, kind of. She was caught up in the day dream of suffocating him in his sleep. Which might have been a bit much for him calling her dumb, but she didn't care. Maybe she was stupid for letting him fool her. When they started to enter the common area, Gareth stopped talking, right in the middle of his sentence. He was smiling at the turn out apparently. Beth could feel the corners of her mouth sinking down.

"_Initiate, initiate, initiate,"_ Beth looked around at everyone and tried to count quickly. Over half of Terminus was here at least, all chanting. "_Initiate, initiate, initiate."_

"Shhh," Gareth hushed the crowd and raised his arms, like a priest giving a sermon. "I have here our new initiate! It doesn't matter where she came from," (yeah, kidnapping isn't important). "It only matters that she is here now, with us, willing to be part of our community."

With the lump in her throat, it was hard to speak, but Beth managed, "What do I have to do exactly?"

"Why don't we show you. Clear the way, now!"

With those simple word the crowd shuffled and a little aisle was made. At the other end… the girl was on her knees, Beth couldn't even tell if she was breathing. She was slumped down, with her head hanging. Two Terminates were standing on either side of her, with guns in their hands. She must have been alive.

"Bring her here," Gareth raised his hand and twitched his finger at the girl's guards. The two men lifted her under the arms, by the way they picked her up it was clear that her hands were tied behind her back. Her feet were bound too. The guards were just dragging her.

Beth ran her hand through her hair loose hair (she hadn't had in a pony since she got to Terminus) and was taking short, shallow breaths. What did they want her to do to this girl? Beth had an idea about it, but didn't want to think it. They placed the girl back onto her knees a few feet in front of Gareth and Beth. Then one of them grabbed her hair dark hair and lifted her so that Beth could see her face.

She was bruised and had a piece of cloth tied around her head and in her mouth so she couldn't speak, or at least has a harder time doing so. But it was the eyes that caught Beth's attention. Everyone was silent as Beth looked into the girls eyes. They were familiar, Beth could swear she'd seen this girl before.

"Gareth what is this?" Beth could hear the panic in her voice. She looked at Gareth who was smiling still.

"This is initiation. Beth, you have to kill her," when Gareth said her name, Beth saw the girl jolted a little from the corner of her eye.

"Excuse me?" That had been exactly what Beth assumed they wanted her to do, but she still couldn't believe she was hearing it. "Did she do something? Why? Is she sick, bitten?"

"No, Beth," the girl moved again and made eye contact with her. "She's dinner."

Beth felt all the color leave her face as soon as those words came out of his mouth and she assumed her eyes widened about as much as the girls. The lump in her throat was pushing its way further and further up and her knees wobbled. She was no longer hungry.

"Beth, it's okay. We do what we have to. This is how we survive," Gareth put his hand on both her shoulders and stood in front of her at arm's length. "You can do this."

"I… I don't want to do this, Gareth," Beth's hand went to her mouth and she covered her trembling lips. "This isn't right."

"Beth, we talked about sacrifice. For the welling-being of others, this is one of those moments."

Gareth moved and pushed her toward the girl a bit. Beth knew the girl must recognize her to, the way she moved at her name. There was no way that Beth could kill her, whoever she was. The girl was still staring at Beth and Beth looked at her too. The girl's eyes suddenly darted down to the ground, and then back to Beth, and she repeated the motion. She wanted Beth to kneel down in front of her.

With everyone watching Beth squatted down and the girl moved her jaw, trying to tell Beth to untie the cloth. Beth reached around with both hands and fished through the girl's hair until she found the knot and undid it. The girl took a few breaths and then in a whisper that was hardly audible to Beth even she said, "If your name is Beth Greene, I know your sister, Maggie. She's alive. She's here."


	18. Chapter 18

"What did she just say?" Gareth moved closer to Beth and the girl who knew her sister. Her sister. Maggie was alive.

"I don't know, she mumbled it…" Beth's voice was high and she hoped that her panic would cover it up.

"I was begging her to kill me quickly, you piece of shit," the girl spoke in a clearer voice. "I know this girl. My old group killed her father."

Gareth laughed and Beth blinked slowly. This girl was telling the truth. She recognized her from the attack on the prison. She was one of the Governor's. "Isn't the world a small, funny place," Gareth kept laughing and looked at Beth. "Is it true that she killed your father?"

Beth nodded. "They killed my entire family."

"And did they give your father the courtesy of a quick death?"

"No." Beth's mouth felt dry, she was still squatting there by the girl. How could she trust she knew Maggie was in Terminus and alive if this girl attacked the prison.

The girl dropped her head a whispered again, "Beth, kill me. I deserve it, but find you family and go. Maggie and Glenn are in train car A."

"What the hell is she saying!?" Gareth sounded pissed and was down beside them now grabbing the girl by her hair and making it so she couldn't bow her head.

"She was just praying," Beth let the lie flow off her tongue. She didn't know if it was true or why she should be defending this girl, the Governor could have told her anything about the prison family. But she did it anyway.

"Okay let's do this," Gareth stood up and signaled the guards to haul the girl up too. "Beth this is Tara, Tara this is Beth."

"Gareth… I can't do this," Beth was close to throwing up, she hadn't forgotten about Gareth saying this girl was going to be lunch.

"Beth, you heard her, she killed your family."

"Gareth…"

"No you're doing it. You belong in Terminus and this bitch belongs in our stomachs," a string of laughter came from the crowd and they started moving more. Making a clear area for Beth and the girl. Someone was walking towards Beth with a gun. And she could see Tara nodding her head microscopically.

"Wait," Gareth held his hand up at the person with the gun. "She didn't give Beth's family the courtesy of a quick Beth, why should she get it. Fight to the death."

"GARETH!" That was Cameron then. "That girl is bigger than Beth and could just as easily kill her."

"What do you care?" Beth glared at Cameron and at everyone else, Beth stood up and held her head high. "This is stupid! I'm not killing someone to earn my place!"

"Dumb bitch," Tara's bound legs swooped out from under her a collided right with Beth's calves, sending her back to the ground. "I laughed when your father bled out."

Beth felt the anger boil up inside her. This girl, she was making fun of her father's death. She was on top of her and her fist collided with Tara's face before she knew what was happening and there were cheers and chanting all around them.

"Untie her!" Gareth gave the orders and they lifted her off of Tara. Then started to untie the wires around her wrist and ankles. Beth was breathing hard, her hand was throbbing from that one hit. She'd never punched anyone in her entire life.

"Okay Beth, hit her again," There was excitement in Gareth's voice, like a child on Christmas morning.

Beth didn't hit her when he told her to though. She just stood there staring at Tara. Who was up and in a fighting stance. Beth didn't know if she had a single chance against the girl. Cameron was right about her being bigger and probably stronger too.

"Oh what, do I have to make fun of daddy for you to hit me, Princess? COMEON!" Tara swung at Beth and hit her in the arm, it wasn't a hard hit however. In fact in hardly hurt at all.

"You heard her Beth," Gareth egged it on, "Hit her."

"Did daddy bread a scared little girl, hit me!" Tara went at Beth and again, but before she could make contact with her, Beth lunged and her arms were around the girls waste, tackling her to the ground.

The cheers and chanting only became louder as Beth hit her. She didn't hit the girl hard either though. Maybe with only a little more force than Tara. She didn't know why Tara wasn't hitting her hard but she chose to do the same as her. Tara somehow got the leverage though and the next thing Beth felt was her temples hit the concrete.

Tara's head was close to Beth's and she lowered her mouth to Beth's ear. Whispering again she said, "Beth, hit harder. You have to win."

Tara hit Beth lightly a few more times. The exhilaration in the crow was building.

It was then that Beth understood what Tara was trying to do. She was losing on purpose so that Beth would become part of Terminus_. Kill me, I deserve it. But find you family and go. Maggie and Glenn are in train car A_. If Beth lost she'd a) be dead and b) never seen anyone she loved ever again. Beth didn't know if this was Tara's way of making amends, sacrificing herself, but Beth knew that they both knew it was the only way.

"I'm sorry," Beth apologized and could hear Tara do the same.

Driven by the cheers and chants, and Tara's blessing, Beth hit as hard as she possibly could, and again and again until she was able to get up from under Tara. Her foot went into the girl's stomach and sent her flying a few feet. Suddenly Beth let all the anger she was feeling out.

Beth could feel the tears on her hot face as she continuously hit and kicked and clawed at the girl. "HE WAS THE ONLY PERSON THAT MEANT THE ENTIRE WORLD TO ME! AND YOU TOOK THAT FROM ME! HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO RIDE A BIKE!" Beth could feel Tara's nose break. "HE HELPED ME BUILD MY TREEHOUSE!" a rib or two cracked. "HE SEWED UP MY WRIST AND TOLD ME EVERYTHING WAS GOING TO BE OKAY!" maybe her jaw broke, Beth couldn't tell.

Beth was on top of Tara again, who was a bloody mess, and she grabbed her shoulders and shook her. On the last shake Beth slammed the girl's head into the concrete as hard as she could. There were arms around her waist and pulling her off of Tara seconds later and Beth continued to cry. With shaky, bruised and cut hands Beth made the person let go of her.

The chanting changed from _"Initiate"_ to her name "_Beth. Beth. Beth," _and she could feel the Terminates getting closer to her, touching her shoulders and black and someone even hugged her. Like she was part of their sick twisted family. She hated them all.

"_Beth! Beth! Beth!"_

Beth looked around at all of them with the pleased looks on their faces at what she'd done. While she was looking around she caught a glimpse of Tara. Or what use to be Tara, lying on the ground in a pool of her blood Beth had beaten out of her.

There was no holding it in. Anything that was in her stomach came up and out and Beth cried harder at the monster she'd just forced herself to become.

**AN: I'm sorry if some of you hate me now. **


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: Hello my loves! I missed you all so much. I'd be the first to admit my disappointment in my lack of posting. I've been extremely busy with working and whatnot and haven't had the time I needed to update my stories. But I'm back bitches. Without further adieu... **

Beth was still basically on her knees retching as the crowd started whisking her away. They were all moving in a direction that Beth wasn't too sure of, but being that she was in the center of all it, she had no choice but try to stand and move along with them.

With everything in her she rose as fast as she could. This resulted in her seeing stars and almost falling back over again, but she pushed on. The feet around her where all moving at a swifter pace than her and Beth was finding it difficult to not trip over herself. With every step she took she felt dizzier.

She wondered if anyone around her could tell, if she was already giving herself away. No one did though. They didn't seem to care that she had been crying or had vomited on their shoes either. They just cared that she spilled blood.

Every single one of them disgusted her, but not as much as she figured herself. Beth had no idea how she was supposed to live with herself, let alone fool everyone in Terminus that she was one of the if she went grey in the face every time she thought of what they were.

The crowd came to a halt outside another large warehouse. Beth had no clue if she'd seen this one before. The chanting around her was dying out into excited chatter and Beth wondered if she could ask them what was happening without her voice shaking.

She was just about to open her mouth when Gareth's voice boomed over them all, "Where is she? Send her up."

Beth assumed he meant her, but didn't do anything but flick her eyes around at the crowd, whose heads had all turned in her direction.

"Right here!" the women beside her took the initiative and put her hand on Beth's back and pushed her forward. Everyone else cleared to make way instantly and Beth walked slowly towards Gareth, keeping her eyes on the concrete.

"How does it feel Beth, to be part of our community now?" Gareth asked.

How did it feel? She'd just vomited from killing a person in cold blood and she was struggling to stay upright. But that wasn't the answer he was looking for.

Beth was so use to speaking her mind. The people she cared about most didn't mind it. But speaking her mind wasn't going to help the people she loved. Beth looked into Gareth's eyes and tried to find the courage she knew she had.

She thought about Tara's sacrifice and how she couldn't let it be in vain. How Maggie and Glenn must be feeling about their potential fate and how that wasn't going to happen if she could pull this off.

She narrowed her eyes and composed herself for only a second before confidently answering. "It feels great."

A roar erupted from the crowd for a moment and then Gareth raised her hand and it fell silent again. "That is what we like to hear Beth. Now to get down to business, making you an official member of Terminus."

"I thought that's all I had to do...you didn't say anything else..." Beth tried not the let her voice betray her, but inside she felt panic creep back in.

_Relax_. Beth told herself.

"Almost, there is just one thing," Gareth spoke to her and then the crowd. "I need five witnesses to proceed with us into the warehouse for the last part."

Hands shot up and a few people called their own names. Gareth scanned the group and chose. Calling them up one by one. When all five where up with the Beth recognized two familiar faces, Mary and Cameron, and the other three were strangers. Although she could consider all of them strangers since everyone kept what they were from her.

"We seven will go into the warehouse and the rest of you can look later when we are done. Thank you," Gareth turned to lead them into the warehouse and they could still hear the cheering when Cameron closed the thick door behind them.

**. . .**

"What do you thinks going on out there?" Daryl watched Carl peered through the crack in the door and twist his neck about like it would help him see further or something.

The chanting and cheering started about half an hour ago, only ceasing for a few minutes at a time. They were too far away to make out what they'd been shouting but they sure were excited.

"What do you think it is kid?" Daryl turned his gaze to Abraham. Who was still on the other side of the car with Rosita and Eugene. "They're cannibals and they just took one of us."

"Now, we don't know if it's Tara for sure," Bob didn't sound as convincing and he probably meant to. "There's other cars with other people."

"And that's any better? What exactly do you think goes on out there?" Daryl didn't mean to be snappy with Bob, but Abraham but him in a mood. "Put 'em in a little holding stock in the courtyard and pick 'em one by one? Why do that when they already have the cars?"

Everyone shut up after that again. They all knew he was right, but being right about this wasn't something he could be smug about.

**. . .**

There were candles absolutely everywhere. On shelves and on the flood, dripping their wax and filling the warehouse with their dim light. It would almost have romantic feeling to it if not for the unsettling writing near every candle and on the walls.

Beth shot her eyes around at the walls. _Never again, never trust. We first, always_. "What is this place?"

"It's a memorial," Beth turned to see Mary taking a tall candle from a shelf nearby. "In this room are the last words of everyone who has past to make us stronger."

All the last words where in fact painted onto the floor, along with names. Beth crouched down and read the one closest to her:

_Emily "Please..."_ and after it the name _Gareth._

Emily, like the girl he had mentioned when Beth first got there. So much for dying on a supply run.

Beth scanned the floor some more. There were plenty of pleases and stops and don'ts. There where ones that showed bravery and ones that showed weakness. The room was filled with over a hundred of these memorials. Beth wondered if anyone she knew was written down.

"Beth?" Gareth called her name and she looked up, he must have been talking to her while she was looking.

"Sorry. What was that?"

"I asked you to pick a spot. For Tara."

There were areas nearer to her that she could have picked, clearer parts of the floor. But Beth didn't want her murder to be on display. She stood up from her crouch and walked over the one of the more occupied areas.

"Right here," Beth pointed to the small clearing in the center of seven or eight memorials, where she could make her writing small.

She hadn't notice Cameron had disappeared until he came jogging back into the room carrying something. When he got close enough, Beth could see the black paint in the container he had.

"Okay Beth, just write her name, her last words and your name after that. Then you can place the candle," Mary nodded at Cameron her tell him to move closer the Beth with the paint.

There wasn't a paint brush, so Beth guessed she'd have to write it out with her fingers. She took the container from Cameron and crouched down again to do as instructed.

When Beth use to finger paint as a child it was something she really liked. The feeling of the paint squishing between her fingers and getting praised by her family for her masterpieces was wonderful. Now she was being praised for the way she was writing out the last words of her victim.

"'I'm sorry?' That's what she said?" Gareth cocked his head as Beth stood to take the candle from Mary. She'd considered writing one of the angrier slurs that had come out of Tara's mouth, but it didn't seem right.

"Yes, I suppose in her final moments she wanted to make retributions. Try to get square with god maybe," Beth struggled casually and set the candle down.

Gareth laughed. "Too bad there is no god. She should have known that. My father knew that."

"Your father was one of the victims?" Beth was a little shocked, if they put themselves first why sacrifice your own?

"No. His words are written on the walls as a reminder. There is no one but us. We always come first. He was the one that came up with the idea of barbecuing after someone betrayed us."

"Where is he now?"

"He died of natural causes. He was one of the leaders here and started taking the rains as he got sicker. He was a great leader," Gareth reached over to put his arm around Mary's should and squeezed.

She smiled at him and said "And you're just as great, my boy."

**AN: Got a little more character stuff and Terminusness revealed in there. And a little bit of Daryl squeezed in (also I know, I know Beth and Daryl have yet to reunite, I'm getting there so please stay patient) **

**Again, happy to be back. **

**Review :)**


	20. Chapter 20

Beth climbed the stair slowly behind Gareth. Even though she was supposed to be a member of Terminus now, he still volunteered to take her to her room after the memorial.

The walk back was surprising silent. Gareth didn't say a word about anything that had just happened or speak to her at all really since he talked to her about his father. He just walked and expected Beth to keep up.

It was actually becoming a struggle for her to stay close behind him. All her adrenaline had finally run out and Beth could feel the ache in all of her muscles and the weakness from her up chucking and crying. She focused on breathing and used the silence to start planning. The sooner she had a plan, the better.

_Train Car A. _

That's what she needed to find. She didn't know if it was guarded or just locked or what. That's the first thing she needed to find out more about. Besides confirming that Glenn and Maggie were actually in there and not made into breakfast sausages.

It was curious that one of the Governor's people had ended up with her sister and brother in law and Beth was interested in finding out how that actually happened. Maybe Maggie and Glenn would regale her with the story if or when they were reunited. Of course she'd never hear Tara's side of it though.

Gareth sighed then, having already made it to Beth's door and opened it. "After you."

"How'd you do that?" Beth looked at the door and back at him.

"I have a skeleton key," Gareth waved the key and slipped it back into his pocket. "It was made just before the turn when Terminus was founded. It opens every lock here."

Beth nodded and made a mental note of it. That could be potentially helpful.

Beth walked into her room and Gareth followed her, closing the door behind him. She didn't exactly know what he was doing, but as soon as the door clicked he was looking at her with that same hungry look he once had before, the one that made her skin crawl.

Without any other warning Gareth's closed the distance between them. Placing his hands firmly on her hips and turning her quickly so that she was the one closest to the door. He then slammed her aggressively against the door and let his lips press against her neck.

Beth's first instinct was to yelp as soon as he grabbed her, but it didn't seem to make a difference. He continued to travel up her neck with his lips and one of his hands started sliding into her tangled, matted hair.

"Gareth!" Beth's hands finally came up from her sides and pushed against his chest, trying to regain the distance that was there before. "What are you doing?"

"I wanted to do that for so long, Beth," Gareth took a step closer again. Beth noticed that there was blood smeared around his mouth. It was Tara's blood that was covering her. There was a quick moment where Beth thought she was going to throw up again, but she choked it down.

"Gareth..." Beth started to speak, but he cut her off.

"I didn't want to do anything before you were a part of Terminus though because then things might of gotten a bit sticky," Gareth smirked like the idea of her possibility of becoming lunch was funny. "But it doesn't matter now."

His hand wove deeper into her hair and he pulled Beth toward him. She wished nothing more than to slap him silly, like Maggie had taught her to when boys came on too strong. But she couldn't make Gareth mad, it was too risky.

Beth chose a different tactic to get him away from her though. She started coughing like a maniac right in his face and that made Gareth veer back. Beth cover her mouth sheepishly and shrugged a bit.

"I'm really sorry, I just must have a tickle in my throat! I didn't mean to cough all over you," she said, "I really hope I'm not getting sick."

"You did look a little green earlier, but I think we have some cold meds stashed away somewhere," Gareth finally gave Beth back her personal space. "I'll go get you some and give them to you later. I don't want you sick for your dinner."

"Dinner?"

"Yeah, dinner after initiation there is always a celebration of your first kill. It's where you get the first taste of your victory." Gareth looked over her, more normally this time and said, "You better actually clean up, that Tara was a bleeder."

Beth just nodded and watched him leave, adding one more cough before he closed the door. She then slipped into the washroom and saw how much of a "bleeder" Tara really was. There was so much blood on Beth that you'd think her shirt was actually red and patches of it spewed on her skin. There were clear spots however. Now including the spot Gareth's lips had been.

Her hand went up to her neck and felt the spot. She'd never been kissed like that before, not by any of her boyfriends. But from what she read in Cosmo and all her other magazines before the turn was that it was supposed to feel good. That definitely did not. It was awkward and gross. Like being forced to kiss your dead grandmother at an open casket funeral.

Beth shivered and started the shower. She felt so disgusted by the idea of leaving the clothing she was wearing on the bathroom floor to stain that she got into the shower in everything. If there was one thing she remember it was that warm water didn't help a stain though and she turned the faucet as cold as it could go.

The freezing cold water fell on Beth and instantly turned pink. It pelted off her body and the water would accumulate by the drain for a few seconded before it was sucked down. She watched it do this until she couldn't get any more blood off the clothes and peeled them off.

After that she turned the water to scolding hot. There was temperatures in between she could of chosen, but Beth felt the need to disinfect herself. Especially her neck, which she spent several minutes scrubbing until it was raw.

Her hair was the hardest part. There was no shampoo or conditioner to help untangle it so Beth had to drag her own fingers through it. She pulled so hard a few times that she could feel hair getting pulled out in little clumps, but she did get what she wanted accomplished and there was no trace of pink in the water.

Beth got out of the shower and towels of her hair and looked in the mirror. She was clean. Her cheeks weren't sunken in anymore and the dark under eye circles were gone. She looked the same and she did before the prison fell. Except her hair was falling around her shoulders drying.

At the prison and when she was with Daryl, Beth constantly had her hair up and out of her way. It was simple and kept it out of her face and eyes if she had to do some heavy lifting or fight a walker.

Beth cocked her head at herself in the mirror and studied herself. She then started combing her hair back with her fingers, gathering it into a clump at the crown at the back of her head. There were two elastics on her wrist that had been waiting there since her first shower at Terminus. Beth looped her hair through one to make a pony.

She then took the time to grab a small chunk of the pony and separate it into three different plaits and carefully added a braid. When she was done she started making an exited from the bathroom, but paused to take one more look at her reflection. _Now_ she was the same old blonde hair, blue eyed Beth and she was going to be a forced to be reckoned with.


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: Whoops I'm in Newfoundland (and a lot of you probably don't know where that it). But yea my parents surprised me with a trip to visit my grandma and now I'm all the way across the country my from precious computer. I had saved a daft of the chapter though luckily and at least get to update this fic. It's on my iPad though so it's probably slightly shitty. **

It was early in the morning and Daryl was in what could now be considered his usual spot in the train car. Maggie was standing across the car from him, holding the makeshift bandage and talking in hushed voices with Bob. Daryl kept trying to eavesdrop on their discussion. They were after all talking about him.

If he strained his ears enough he got tidbits like:

Maggie whispering, "Well does it look…?"

And Bob replaying, "It's hard to say…"

But other than that he was just staring at their moving lips, unable to read them.

The pair stole a glance in Daryl's direction then went back to their conversation. They were the only ones in the car talking, besides Carl and Michonne. Who were distracting themselves some sort of slapping game and every now and then you'd hear someone call the other a cheater or a teasing comment. It was amazing how inaudible they were able to be.

The rest of the car had been pretty much silent for a long while. Daryl hadn't spoken to Abraham, Rosita or Eugene since the argument about Tara. Eugene had tied to break the silence with facts about dinosaurs and some other biology stuff, but Abraham just cleared his throat and Eugene shut his mouth. There was no other attempt after.

That was two days ago. Which meant that for two days the entire escape plan had come to a complete halt all because neither side wanted to back down. All they were doing was sitting around. The group from the prison talked amongst themselves and Abraham's group whispered to each other.

Daryl wondered if they were planning their own escape plan actually. Not that any of it would work. Scientist Eugene might formulate a plan, but the three would never be able to pull it off. Not with the amount of people there, which Daryl was guessing was at least in the high teens, if not the twenties. They needed everyone in this car and even then some maybe.

Everyone knew that too and could see the affect it was having inside the walls. Rick was the one it was getting to the most though, the idleness of it all. The night before, while everyone was asleep, he tried to reason with Daryl. He said that someone had to be the bigger man if they wanted to get out with as minimal casualties as possible, which was true. Daryl even thought about it while going to sleep himself. Dixons weren't ones to back down, but he had others to think about.

A cease fire is what they needed.

However, when he woke up and chose to take the high road, Maggie swooped in like some bat out of hell and demanded to take a look at his wound. She began putting him in a right foul mood and all thoughts of apologies started trickling out of his head. And it got even worse worse when he actually let her.

Maggie had been unwrapping it, trying to be chatty with him to distract him from the amount of jostling she was putting him through, when her sentence was cut off and her face dropped. She gaped at his arm and Daryl thought she might be sick. Which would have been stupid because she had told him she gutted multiple walkers and finger painted messages to Glenn with their blood. A little gunshot wound shouldn't have sent her across the car with her tail between her legs.

Daryl had asked her what was wrong as soon as she stood up, but she didn't answer and went to go get Bob's opinion instead. Bob was supposed to have been a medic in the army or whatever, but he'd been no help at all since Daryl got shot. He probably _didn't want to hurt nobody _or have Daryl lose it on him like he had once before at the animal hospital.

Daryl looked down at his arm to make self-assessments, since Maggie and Bob were ignoring his questions. It didn't do him much good though. He had no idea what he was supposed to be looking for though. All he saw was angry skin and streaks of old blood.

He didn't know if it was bad or good. As a child when his father took the belt to him or tossed him around, he'd take to the woods for a couple hours, nurse his wounds in the creek a bit and wait for the old man to pass out. Then he'd go home try to ignore the constant stinging feeling. The wounds healed into scars and he didn't question it or asks for a second opinion.

But that was before the turn. In this world now, he wanted it treated and he wanted it done right. Hershel fixed him up when he got injured on runs, he was the expert. Maggie and Bob had to tell him something or at least know something though.

"Well maybe if…"

"How do you suggest we..?"

Daryl caught another part of their conversation as he looked up from his failed assessment. He listened as hard as he could this time. Sending a look over at Carl and Michonne to keep either noise level to non existent.

"No that's no good…"

"What's no good?" Daryl moved from his spot against the car.

Maggie bit lower lip and lowered her voice even more.

Daryl raised his and asked again, "I said, what's no good?"

Bob actually decided to take notice and opened his mouth to speak to Daryl, but Abraham beat him to it. "You're clearly on the break of a raging infection on your arm. I can tell that from here."

"No one asked you," Daryl grumbled at Abraham.

"Well actually Daryl, he's right."

Daryl turned back to Maggie, "Excuse me?"

"It really needs to be cleaned and sewed up… or it's going to fester."

**. . .**

Beth stared at her plate and moved the vegetables on it around with her fork. The peas would roll around the edge, then roll on back her way and she'd go on a push it around again. She ignored the other side of the plate completely, not even wanting to think about what was on it. Instead she rested her chin on her hand and continued to devise her and Maggie and Glenn's breakout.

Most of her ideas were being born and centered around Gareth's skeleton key, but kept hitting dead ends the further she got into the thoughts. She'd taken her time to look around Terminus and take in crucial factors like watches or exits. There seemed to be 24 hour watches and one exit, making a few ideas nearly impossible. The one thing they could do would be scale fences, but that was all dependent on how far away the fence was from the train car.

She had yet to come across any train cars yet and wasn't able to exactly sneak away and search. Gareth had decided he'd continue to show her around and he didn't seem to take her near the "food storage". But now having seen much more of Terminus, she had a fair idea of where they had to be located and the proximity of the fence.

"You look different."

Beth looked up from her peas and planning to see Becca sitting down across from her with a plate stacked sky high with meat.

Gareth, who was on Beth's right hand side talking to Cameron, jumped out of his conversation and decided to contribute to Becca's comment. "It's her hair. She's been wearing it up for a few days now. I told her I didn't like it, but she is insist on it."

Beth smiled to herself as she heard the distaste in his voice. She had her pony and braid in since her initiation day and he did not only not like it, but she was pretty sure he hated it. The moment he saw her, his face went all twisted and he told her she should take it out. She felt great hearing that. But it didn't change the fact that he had an infatuation with her. He always had to be touching her. Even now Gareth was sitting with hand possessively on her leg.

"Its fine," Becca waved at his comment and smiled in Beth's direction. "It's just different from our Beth. We've only seen her with it down."

Beth nodded in agreement even though she didn't believe she was _their_ Beth.

Gareth shrugged, "Maybe I guess..."

"Anyway, Beth has Gareth taken you to pick out a weapon yet?" Becca changed the subject and looked around by Beth to see if there was a weapon strapped to her.

"Oh yeah — I was going to take her to after breakfast actually," Gareth said. "She knows how to work a gun already so it won't be that hard."

"Well that's good," Becca nodded, "I'm more of a knife girl myself."

"I did have a knife on me when I got picked up," Beth had been wondering where that had gone since she got there. It was obvious it was taken away but she wanted to know where it was taken exactly.

"You can have that back too, as long as you don't try to cut me with it again," Gareth laughed and stuck his arm out to show the healing cut Beth had made before.

Bet laughed a little and put a sweet smile on her face, "I promise I won't."

**. . .**

Gareth sat patiently as he waited for Beth to finish eating, not noticing when he wasn't look that she was tossing her meat into the flower bed near them. When he was paying attention she shovelled peas into her mouth, feeling like vegetarian was a good way to go again, and made it look like everything was satisfying. When her plate was empty they got up and started walking to the painting warehouse, where some of the weapons were kept.

Beth let him walk shoulder to shoulder with her, but remained quiet and he talked about which weapons he like to use the most. He was preferential to guns and offered to teach her how to use the bigger ones if she wanted to upgrade from handguns. Beth nodded and smiled and tried not be be utterly creeped out by his excitement.

When they finally got to the warehouse Beth walked quickly through the dark hallway to the painting room and found several people in there. They smiled and nodded at her and went back to their work. But when Gareth walked in they didn't do just that. They straightened up and peered curiously at the two.

"Beth is picking out her weapons today," Gareth announced and a few of them clapped excitedly even.

Beth waited for Gareth to fish the skeleton key out of his pocket and looked around the room at which door might lead to the weapons room. There were threes door that it could be home to. One was a steel door with a big lock on it. The others were just thick wood, possibly broom cupboards.

Beth started heading in the direction of the steel door when Gareth cleared his throat and pointed in the direction of one of the wooden doors. Beth followed and waited for him to open in.

When the door swung open all Beth could really think was that it was in no way a broom cupboard. Gareth switched the light on and revealed a room that was huge and the walls were lined floor to ceiling with different types of weapons.

"Impressive…" Beth said and stepped into the room, already eyeing a 9mm.

"A lot of our guest haven't had a need for their weapons," Gareth picked up one of the guns hanging on the wall, shined it a bit with his shirt and put it back. "Have a good look around."

Beth took that suggestion and wandered a little further in. There were plenty of guns and knives, more than she could probably count. She picked up them up and down and inspected a fair few of them until she was almost on the other side. She managed to spot a knife and sheath that was close, if not actually hers and strapped it around her belt.

She was just about to go back across the room, to grab the 9mm she had been looking at first when something caught her eye. Unlike everything else in the room, it wasn't hung up nicely. It was thrown in the corner of the room without care. Beth walked towards it and looked over her shoulder at Gareth.

"What's this?" Beth asked, even though she knew exactly what it was and who it belonged to.

**AN: It feels good to update after such a long while. It's like almost 3 am here but I just felt the _need_. If I have access to a computer and a little more wifi I'll update again, otherwise I'm not home until Saturday so keep a weather eye out. **


	22. Chapter 22

_Beth stood by the creek, rocking back and forth on her heels. She watched as Daryl splashed water on his face to wake himself up and tried to look a little more patient._

_"Will you quit hoverin'?" Daryl looked up at and glared, already grumpy with her._

_Beth had taken it upon herself to shake Daryl awake, vigorously, about five minutes go. He of course had not been too impressed by the lack of emergency surrounding them. If they were on the move so early in the morning it was because something was after them. Not because he told her he was going to start teaching her how to use his crossbow yesterday. _

_He had said he might before, the night after the moonshiner's cabin, but it was a week later and not a word had been said about it since. Beth didn't forget, but didn't push her luck. She knew that Daryl was taking his time deciding. _

_Then last night Daryl finally announced that the next morning her lessons would begin. Beth was so excited she hardly got any sleep. And then when the sun started to just peak over the horizon she decided that when Daryl said morning, he meant first thing in the morning. _

_He however had not meant first thing in the morning and was grumbling to himself as he got to his feet. Beth stopped rocking on her heels and took a step back._

_"I'm sorry, we can do this later if you want," Beth offered. She didn't want him to be so upset with her that every other word out of his mouth was soaked with anger._

_"No, I didn't wake up for nothing," Daryl walked over to the leather back pack sitting against one of the trees and open it so he could start stuffing items into it. "Pack up, then we'll start."_

_Beth helped Daryl untie the string of hubcaps, cans and other noisy objects from the trees that marked the perimeter of the camp and warned them about walkers. She was a little quicker about it than him, feeling even more excited now._

_When everything was packed up and leaned against the tree again, Beth started rocking on her heels once more, eyeing the crossbow a few feet away from her. Daryl let out a sign and walked over to his weapon. _

_"Okay, get a good feel for it," Daryl held the crossbow out for her to take, with some reluctance. Beth took it without hesitation. _

_"Was it always this heavy?" Beth asked, shifting both of her hand to she could hold it up. She'd held it once before but she didn't remember it being that heavy. _

_"Are you complaining?" Daryl raised his eyebrows at her. "We don't have to do lesson."_

_"No," Beth tightened her grub on the bow. "I was just asking." _

_"Okay, good. Let's start." _

_Beth smiled widely, "Great! What are we practicing on? Do you have targets set up or..?"_

_"Wait, you thought I was gonna let you shoot it?" Daryl looked at her, almost with amusement. _

_"Well that's what a crossbow does, Daryl," Beth didn't understand what her was getting at, he said he was going to teach her. "It shoots arrows."_

_"And that is where you're already wrong, Greene."_

_"What?" Beth furrowed her eyebrows at him. Was he having a go at her? She thought it might be too good to be true. Daryl was just playing some big joke on her by saying he'd teach her. _

_"Crossbows," Daryl grabbed an arrow from the quiver and waved it a bit, "shoot bolts."_

_Beth opened her mouth to argue. But closed it again, deciding it was better not to argue with Daryl about technicalities. He was the expert and if she pissed him off about things like hunting, she'd never hear the end of it. _

_"Okay, okay," Beth took the arrow...bolt...she took the bolt from Daryl and carefully and put it back into its spot. "So what now?" _

_"So now, you're gonna sit here and memorized every single detail about this crossbow and how it works before you even think about shootin' it," Daryl sat down by the tree with the bags and put his back up against it. _

_Beth stopped herself from rolling her eyes and said, "Yes, Mr. Dixon."_

**. . .**

"Oh that thing?" Gareth crossed the room and joined Beth. "That's a crossbow."

Beth knelt down and eyed the weapon one more time, just to make sure her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. But it wasn't. She'd spent countless hours memorizing that bow and asking Daryl questions over and over again just like she was told. The bolts, the stock, the stirrup, everything about the weapon was comfortably familiar to her.

Beth looked up and Gareth and asked "Why isn't it hung up like everything else?" pointing at the walls around them. "It seems like a good weapon to have."

"You'd probably think that, cause you don't know any better," Gareth was talking to her like she was a small child learning colours. "The thing has about three arrows and is heavy as hell."

"Bolts."

"Huh?"

Beth bit her tongue hard and dismissed her interjection, "Nothing."

Gareth didn't seem to care much about what she was saying anyway and continued on, "Anyway, we didn't bother hanging it up because it's not a first choice pick for anyone."

"I think I'd like to try it," the words came out of her mouth before she could stop herself, the crossbow didn't belong in this room.

Gareth look at her like she didn't hear a word he said, "It's a pretty complicated weapon Beth, you already know how to use a knife and gun, maybe you should stick with that."

Beth pressed her lips together and thought how she was going to get his crossbow out without bringing suspicious. The only thought that came to mind seemed bound to work though, since there was that whole infatuation situation.

After taking a few beats to think about it, Beth cocked her head to the side a bit and stepped so she was standing in front of Gareth. She put on her best puppy dog eyes and lifted her hand so she could tug on the long sleeve of his shirt.

"I really like a challenge though," Beth used her sweetest voice then batted her eyelashes for good measure.

Like she thought he would, Gareth smiled at her and moved a little closer, "I'm the exact same way."

Beth smiled and moved abruptly away from him and towards the crossbow. "Great, so I can have it?"

"Yeah, the guy it belonged to won't be missing it."

With those words Beth held her breath for a moment and then asked, "Oh, is he...was he...lunch one day?"

"Nah, but he might be soon," Gareth said, "When the fight wears out of him a bit more."

Beth had to keep her face emotionless, but she could feel her skin tingling and something build up inside her. Daryl was alive, in Terminus and still had plenty of fight left in him. And just like that hope started bubbling in her stomach again, like it had her first day there. If Maggie, Glenn and Daryl were all there anyone could be. Hidden in any of the train cars could be the missing pieces of her family.

"I really wish you'd take your hair out of that pony," Gareth changed the subject, not knowing or caring what he had just revealed to her.

"I think I'll keep it in," Beth shrugged and let her hand go up to her braid. "This is who I am. And I'd like to stay like that."

**AN: I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22! Chapters that is...**

**It's very exciting for me to have gotten so far with this fic and to have so many wonderful people reading it. I say it a lot in my notes because I am truly so grateful! THANK YOU EVERYONE. **


	23. Chapter 23

"Shit."

"Carl, watch your mouth," Rick chastised his son, but it was obvious that there was that word and then some wanting to spill off his tongue.

An infection could be severely problematic. For Daryl, mostly. If it festered it could potentially kill him. Everyone in the car knew that, they didn't have to be a doctor. Daryl himself, couldn't stop thinking of how ridiculous the entire thing would be. Him, Daryl Dixon, done in during the apocalypse by an infection. Not even the gunshot itself.

"Well, what are the options?" Michonne asked, but knew they were pretty minimal.

"If you ask me, there are none," Abraham was talking to everyone in the car. "These people have been starving us out since your group got here. We haven't had any protein, let alone water. The only time they came in here was to take one of us."

"Luckily, nobody asked you," Daryl snarled and looked over at Maggie and Bob again.

"Well…" Maggie started, but Daryl cut her off.

"Will you quit agreeing with him?!" he knew it was a bit childish to say, but at this moment he just wanted a silver lining.

And that's when Rick finally reached his limit, no longer giving anyone the option to speak or argue, "Look! All of you. You all need to stop, you're acting like the only chance of getting out of here is to be taken. Is your memory so short that you forgot we can escape?"

Abraham stood and walked over to the other side of the car so that he was face to face with Rick, "I remember we can escape. But I also remember reckless behavior."

"JESUS, FINE!" Daryl was taking the making peace approach differently than Rick probably wanted but it was happening so even he didn't object.

"What was that?" Abraham looked so smug that Daryl would have liked to get up and slap this with his good arm.

"I'm sorry," Daryl mumbled.

"One more time, I couldn't hear you?"

Daryl spoke clearer, "I'm sorry. You were right."

Keeping his eyes on the train car floor, Daryl waited for Abraham to respond, in a self-satisfied, _I win_ way. But it didn't happened, instead a hand came into his field of vision and waited for him to take it. Which he did, and firmly shook it.

"So, everyone's good?" Glenn chimed in.

"Yeah. For now at least. I told you I liked fighting, Glenn."

**. . .**

Beth let Gareth carry the crossbow for her as they walked back to the living quarters. She kept nervously glancing over at him however, waiting him to drop it and come to some unexplainable epiphany that she wasn't on his side. But she knew that was ridiculous. She hadn't slipped up in knowing her sister was somewhere in a car. She didn't show excitement over Daryl's weapon. At least she didn't think she did. Beth had no reason to be jumpy.

But she was, and she was excited. If she could figure out some plan she could finally be reunited with even more of her family than she thought possible. If she screwed up, she might still be reunited with her family, just not in the way she would like.

The stakes were high, but Beth continued to remind herself that in this world they always were. This was hardly different from living her life in the prison like before, or when she was out with Daryl. Death by human or walker, every minute you survived was a risk.

"Do you also want a gun?" Gareth asked, "I can give you one as a backup if this whole crossbow thing doesn't work out."

Beth was going to say no, because she knew the _crossbow thing _would work out, but then she thought she might need a little something extra and said, "Yeah, I'll take you up on that offer."

Getting a gun meant she could probably go back to the weapons room too, it had come to her that there might be more recognizable weapon in there if she took some more time to look it over.

"Well, I have an extra one lying around in my room if you want it."

"Uhm…" Beth didn't particularly like the sounds of that. She had been in high school before the world went to shit after all. This was a sign that was easy enough to read.

"Well, it'd be stupid to walk all the way back to the warehouse," Gareth sounded casual and reasonable.

Beth kept her eyes straight and felt the need to hike up her shirt. Her mouth was beginning to feel dry. He probably thought this was okay, inviting her back to his room because she had flirted with him to get the crossbow. He probably thought it meant _take me I'm yours_.

"So?" They had just reach the entrance that would take them to the staircase that would take them to the hallway that would take them to his room.

"Yeah, I can grab the gun and go. I want to go help out Cameron in the hospital wing, my dad was a vet…and I told Cameron I'd show him a few things that'd work just as well on humans as it does on animals," Beth spat out the first lie she could think of. Well, half of it was true.

Gareth didn't seem to look too disappointed as he opened the door for her. Beth tried not to be wavered by it. She followed him up like usual and when they passed the door to her room, she looked longingly at it.

Two of three more after her door was Gareth's.

He opened the door into a room, in some ways was like Beth. It was the same color and the same lay out. But the similarities stopped there. It looked more like the memorial room to Beth. Gareth had taken paint and written on the walls and there was paper with messages written in what she knew wasn't red paint stuck everywhere.

It was also strangely messy. Gareth had Terminus running like a well oiled machine, she expected ever aspect of his life to be the same. But this room chaotic.

"Welcome to my humble abode," Gareth set the crossbow down a walked casually over to a desk where Beth's dresser would have been in her room.

"It's uhm…" Beth wanted to say creepy but she didn't think that'd go over well, "nice."

Gareth found what he was looking for on the desk and turned around to wave her over. Beth was still standing in the doorway. She did go over to him, but she left the door open behind her, "How's this?"

Not taking the time to actually look at it, Beth said, "Its fine."

"That's good," Gareth smiled and moved in as close as he could get to her, placing his hand around the back loop and belt of her jeans. He tugged a bit and made a small place where he could slide the gun. Beth breathed normally and ignored his touched. Finding anything in the room to distract herself from his hands beginning to run all over her after he finished placing the gun.

She found herself staring at the papers on his desk. There were some with half finished writing smeared on them and blanks sheets strewn around them. An idea hit her then.

"Oh!" Beth exclaimed. Half because Gareth had just put his hand on her boob and half because of her excellent idea. Beth put her hands around Gareth's wristed and moved them away from her so that she could walk straight to the desk. "Do you think I could have some of these papers?"

"Why?" Gareth asked, this time showing his annoyance.

"I use to keep a journal, but I lost it. I think I'd like to start again," Beth didn't actually wait for him to say yes when as she started grabbing blank sheets and piling them up.

"I guess you can have some."

"Thanks!" Beth balanced the papers and some black paint in her hands and went to grab the crossbow, which she didn't find heavy at all. She didn't know if it seemed suspicious that she was up and leaving him, but she did leave the door open to make a quick getaway so it shouldn't have come to a surprise to Gareth that she was going.

"Need any help?" Gareth offered but she was already out the door and closing it behind her.

Beth rushed back to her room and juggled the weapon, paint and paper around so that could unlock and open the door. Once inside she set the crossbow back down again. Then she lowered herself down to the floor, crossing her legs and putting papers down around her.

After dipping her fingers in the paint, she carefully began to write out:

_My name is Beth Greene, _


	24. Chapter 24

_My Name is Beth Greene,_

_Like you, I am of prisoner of Terminus, but I have access to weapons. Choose to fight with me and I swear, I will help you make it out alive. In two days I will be opening all of the storage containers. __  
_

_God bless.  
_


	25. Chapter 25

Beth's chest rose and fell rapidly as she weaved her way through Terminus. Knowing there were snipers on most of the roof tops, she kept herself pressed us against the brick walls of the buildings. Her eyes had barely adjusted to the darkness and Beth was squinting at her surroundings.

Thanks to the changing of the season, it got darker fairly quicker than before. Meaning the giant stadium like lights around Terminus didn't come on to illuminate everything until much later. Beth had learned that, since before the turn, they were set on timers to conserve energy. Even though it was inconvenient, no one seemed to bother to reset them.

At that moment it was only a slight issue. While the lack of light kept Beth hidden, it also kept her praying that the shapes around her weren't human. It was late, but Beth could never be completely confident that those not on watch weren't awake.

If she was caught then, everything would be shot to hell in a matter of minutes.

Inside the army green jacket Beth had found in her dresser, seven letters were concealed. Six of them were identical. She didn't know how many train cars there were containing people, but she planned to shove one of the six under every door she could. The seventh letter would be going into Train Car A.

There was no way of telling which train car Daryl was in, and that's why Beth needed to put a letter in everyone one, and open every one. That, and to have a miniature army backing her.

Beth did not want to leave a single person behind, if she was going to be perfectly honest. She knew that they probably weren't innocent of anything, it was hard to say that anyone one was in the world they'd be living in the past years, but Beth believed that they all deserved a fighting chance. She also wanted to see Terminus fall, in a way that they had probably imagined, but deemed unlikely; by the hands of those they kept captive.

It was a long shot that anyone would even believe the letters, the habitants of the cars might think it's some kind of sick joke, but it was the best Beth could think of.

She hoped that when she opened the doors, everything would just click into place. But she couldn't calculate every moment to make sure everything would go off without a hitch. Placing weapons in the hands of people she didn't know could end disastrously, not only for the Terminates, but for the people she loved as well.

All day, Beth had gone over in her head every problem that might arise. It was a lengthy list that ultimately ended in everyone dying. But not taking the risk would end just the same.

At that moment, the problem was the noises around her. Beth kept her hand on her hunting knife and, every so often, would pause to determine which were human and which were coming from nature. Then she would continue in her swift, but silent manner towards her destination. She had figured, geographically, that the cars were on the other side of Terminus; far away from any newcomers that could hear those trapped inside

Beth was about a third of the way there, maybe. She would hear her heart pounding in her ears and sweat was rolling in giant beads off of her skin, but she began to push herself even harder. Beth only had a rough idea of how much of her time frame had already dwindle away.

The quickening of her pace was effective of course, but it started to cause Beth's feet to be sloppy. Every few steps or so, Beth's boot would kick a pebble on the cement and send it flying into the darkness ahead of her. The pebble would hit an upcoming metal barrel or rebound off the bricks, the sounds it made weren't enough to bring attention to her though.

Halfway there, Beth turned into an alleyway and was feeling confident that she'd make good time.

Then her foot hit the metal pipe.

**. . .**

Daryl couldn't stop picking at the bandage Maggie had re-wrapped around his arm. He was told all day to, "_Please leave it alone"_, and up until she fell asleep, he had. He needed something to keep his hands busy. He was getting anxious. They had gotten further with their escape plan today than they ever had before.

After Daryl's truce with Abraham, everything started to come back around. It seemed that many had used the silence to formulate their own plans and the suggestions were coming one after the other. Most of the plans went along with wanting to fight back against Terminus, they all agreed they were missing the factor of more able bodies.

Everyone in their car was extremely weak and hungry. Although no one would admit to it. Earlier, Daryl had caught side of Carl's shoulders shaking from the lack of nutrition and it was hard to miss everybody's faces becoming gaunt.

**. . .**

Beth gasped in surprised at the echo it had caused, then flung her hands over her mouth to shut herself up. She tried not to freeze up. If it was even possible, she managed to plaster herself close to the wall and listened. Footsteps where shuffling on the rooftop directly above her.

"What was that noise?" a voice asked from the very edge of the building.

Beth flicked her eyes up, hopefully to see the figure the voice belonged to looking off in some other direction.

From what she could tell, he was scanning the alleyway, "Bring the flashlight over here!"

A _flashlight_!? Even if it couldn't be seen, Beth's face reddened with anger. One of the most obvious things a sniper could have and she missed it on her list of problem. A list for the future that would probably never come now.

**AN: Hello old chaps. I have nothing to say about this chapter because...plot. **

**But I do have an announcement!**

**Later on this fine Tuesday I will be publishing a new story(because all I do is write fanfiction...seriously...). I am beginning to co-write with my best friend, whom I've turned Bethyl. **

**The story will not be on my account, but there will be a link to it on my profile. **

**Our pen name is The Walking Nerds and our story is a Bethyl AU.**

**If you could do me the great kindness of reading and reviewing when it's up, that'd be hella rad. **


	26. Chapter 26

**AN: I'm back. **

**But before I get this long awaited chapter underway, I would like to address Sunday's Mid Season Finale. [SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT]**

**Beth did not get the death she deserved. Eventually everyone in the world of TWD is going to die, I know that and there is no denying that one day even Rick Grimes will fall. However the arc they were giving Beth and the way she went out, in my opinion - and like 98% of the fandom probably - was not okay. I think it was a cheap play for shock value and I am pissed. The writers threw away such potential for her.**

**As a fan who had been watching since day one, I am going to be continuing watching The Walking Dead. But I feel cheated. **

**That's all.**

**Now a story line that is deserving of our fallen warrior:**

A lump formed in Beth's throat as she waited for the sniper with the flashlight to make a move. A million things were running through her head of what would come of this stupid mistake. She was plastered with the incriminating letters and one especially that would show her attachment to her sister and Glenn. She knew that her getting caught would ultimately end in her being butchered and served to the people of Terminus, but it was the in between that would most likely be the worse to her grisly ending.

Gareth would not blink twice when it came to torturing her. No matter what power she thought she had over him. Then Maggie and Glenn. Then, if they were able to break any of them, Daryl. Beth wondered if they'd kill her family first or her…

"Are you deaf?" the voice of the man on the edge of the roof tore Beth away from her thoughts suddenly. It seemed that his partner was not being compliant to his demand. Had it been a minute...two maybe since he asked? "Bring the flashlight over."

Finally the second man broke his silence and his voice was, surprisingly, dipping with sarcasm, "Maybe I don't feel like chasing after rats again."

"It's not like that this time! There's something down there!"

"And the last two times we were on watch and there was something down there?" the man with the flashlight scoffed.

Beth almost rolled her eyes at the irony. She a) was definitely down there and b) probably actually could have ran away, undetected, while they argued like an old married couple.

She was actually just about to do just that when the man on the edge seemed to find some authority to put in his voice, "Can you bring me the damn flashlight. Now."

With a small beat then a sigh, the man with the flashlight agreed, "Fine. But if I get up and there's nothing down there, I swear I'm pushing you off."

That's when the footsteps began. Beth couldn't hear the flashlight click on, but she was able to see the beam shining forward onto the roof of the building across from her as he made is way toward his partner. The beam grew stronger as he got closer, and it probably was sheer luck that it wasn't already illuminating her.

_Think…think!_

Beth was screaming to herself in her head, she had quickly admitted defeat when she heard the word flashlight, but now her survival instincts had her doing a 180. She allowed herself to move her head microscopically to see want she could use; if there was something, anything to distract them.

She thought she truly was out of options when it came into view. The pipe was laying just feet away from her and if the noise it had made brought attention to her before, it could certainly bring if away.

With every ounce of adrenalin Beth had left in her body she swiftly peeled herself from the wall and was able to grab onto the rusted metal. She found herself thrusting it down the alleyway toward the direction she had come from and with a clang even louder than the one it had made when it met her foot, the pipe landed on the cement further in the distance than she expected.

"What the hell!"

Beth looked up to see the beam of light turning toward the discarded pipe and felt a smile play at her lips as the snipers moved down the ledge toward the noise. But she didn't let herself revel in the small victory more than that split second. The noise attracted the men she wanted it to, but she guessed it would attract others too and she had wasted too much time with her slip up, she couldn't afford to lose any more time. Finding herself back against the wall, Beth continued on, this time making sure that every spot she placed her foot was clear of any objects.

**AN: I'd also like to apologize to the people who thought I was gone for good. I'm graduating this year and I've been caught up in school. But I promise you will be seeing more of me very soon!**


	27. Chapter 27

When Beth reached the other side of the compound, she stopped to analyse her surroundings just one more time. The train cars were right there – in the open – dotted around near the fence line. The buildings near them, were lower than the ones Beth had used to cloak herself and on at least three of them she could see a sniper pacing. When she looked to her left, she could see one of the stadium lights flickering.

It was a warning.

In a matter of minutes Terminus would be lit up and Beth would be in danger of being revealed. She had come to terms with that fact, but she knew that if she was revealed, she couldn't have the letters on her at least. She had to move with all the energy she still had left inside her if she wanted to make that happen.

With her eyes darting back and forth to the rooftops she made her first move. A short run to the nearest train car. It had nothing on it, not a letter or number. Beth pressed her ear up against the side. Muffled noises came from inside. One letter went inside.

She moved like that to every train car, watching the snipers and listening for something inside. Several of the ones she came to were presumably empty, but Beth took the chance with some and stuffed the letters underneath anyway, always checking first if it was train car A – none of them were. She had yet to find the train car that was holding her sister and Beth was almost out of time. There were too many train cars.

When Beth shoved her second to last letter under a car door, she saw one of the stadium lights in the distance, not flicker, but instantly come on. She thought she might never get to her sister in time, when finally saw the train car only 15 metres away.

It was the longest distance between cars she'd have to run yet without being spotted.

Sending a silent and quick prayer up, Beth didn't hesitate to take off in the car's direction. She didn't look to see if any more lights had come on, or if a sniper was looking right in her direction, possible pointing, she just ran until she was behind the car. She was on the opposite side from the door, however. Of course it was one of the only ones that didn't have the door facing the other direction. Beth sighed and was about to take off again when something caught her eye – a spot on the car that didn't quite fit in.

Moving closer to it, Beth realized the blemish was actually a hole. And from what Beth could tell from the size, it was a bullet hole. Carefully, Beth ran her finger over it, realizing how she could use it. If she was able to roll up Maggie and Glenn's letter tight enough, the tube would be able to slide right on through to the inside.

With her dwindling time limit, Beth made the choice to do it and quickly reached into her jacket to pulled out the final letter. She rolled it up as tight as it could go and with a deep breath, she pushed it through, listening as the paper scratched against the ridged metal edges.

Feeling some relief that all the letters were gone, Beth let herself turn around slowly. Stepping away from the car, she looked up. Almost all the lights were on. However, Beth had yet to be grabbed, or anything of the sort with the train car was still blocking her from sight.

She knew how the buildings were placed, and that train car A was sitting almost parallel to one. It was one that Beth had noticed a sniper on. But it was hard to say that if she ran for the wall, they would see her. With more lights now on, the guards were probably more comfortable and not expecting it.

Beth decided she could take one more gamble.

**. . .**

Beth had been right once more to take the gamble. When she made her run for the building, it seemed no one was paying attention and she made it to the wall without being detected. After, she had made the decision to take the, seemingly, long way back around the building and along the fence.

While she tried to stick to the walls as much as she could going the way she chose, there were so many discarded items – more barrels and pallets than in any of the alleyways – that she was forced to go around and down what was basically the middle.

To her luck, it seemed that watch on that fence was neglected. Beth wondered why, but didn't give herself much time to think about it. She was focused more on how she'd be getting back to her room. Although 90% of Terminus was alien to her, she did know that she would have to cross Terminus at some point to get to the housing and that she was almost there (without the guard she was able to move faster than she had predicted).

She hoped that whatever guardian angel was watching her was still up for one last thing that night.

As the housing building became more propionate in the distance, Beth found herself slowing down and trying harder to be closer to the wall. She was closer to the heart of Terminus, which meant that the side fence she was on, should at least have one guard nearby. There was going to be plenty of them as she tried to cross as well. Her distraction could not have lasted that long.

However, it seemed like that might have just been the case. As Beth finally left her spot to cross, she didn't hear anything coming from above. There was no shoes shuffling or even a cough breaking the silence around her. It was strange.

But the strangeness of it all was not bugging Beth when the building doors appeared just 5 feet away from her. It felt like she was almost home free and let herself jog up to the door. Beth was just about to open the doors to head up the stairs when she heard the definite click of safeties coming from behind her.

"It's a little late to be out, isn't it, Beth?" Gareth asked.

It seemed as though her guardian angel was tired of her shit.


	28. Chapter 28

Somewhere between picking at his bandage and thinking about how hungry he was, Daryl fell asleep. When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was the radiating pain; it was worse than ever before and it travelled from Daryl's shoulder to every cell in his body, making his jaw tighten. The next thing he noticed was the sun rising. The small amount of light that was able to make its way into the car, was just starting to enter and what Daryl would have argued was only five minutes in and exhausted, dreamless state, turned out to be almost the entire night.

It was strange to Daryl that he had managed to sleep, although he wasn't complaining. But by the looks of thing…he may have missed something.

While the rest of the group was still sleeping, Rick, Carl, Maggie and Glenn were all standing in small huddle by the door. Carl was holding something – a piece of paper it looked like – and was looking from Maggie to his father.

"I found this when I woke up," Carl said quietly, "I showed it to my dad first…"

"You need to see it, Maggie," Rick swallowed.

Carl held the paper out and Daryl watched from where he was as a confused Maggie took it. As she read it, the confusion on her face began to fade. One of Maggie's hands came up to her mouth, shaking.

"This can't be real," Maggie looked up at Glenn, who had been reading over her shoulder, in disbelief. He husband took the paper to scan it more thoroughly.

Daryl finally found himself curious to what they were looking at, having been more distracted by the pain before. He now wanted to see what was taking the oldest Greene sister so aback. He tried to get himself up to walk over to them, but it was a struggle. All the aching cells were telling him to stay the hell down. He tried once more to force himself up again, but before he could get a third of the way up, a groan escaped him. As soon as the four heard him, their heads all snapped in his direction. Maggie quickly abandoned the three men and the paper and was by his side soon after

"Daryl!" Maggie grabbed him carefully to help stabilize him then slowly started to lower him down. "What are you doing?"

"Maybe I needed to take a piss," Daryl snarled, mostly upset with himself more than with Maggie and her chastising tone.

Of course, he didn't actually have to piss because of the dehydration, so Maggie knew that wasn't what he was actually doing, "Daryl, seriously."

Daryl sighed, "Just wanted to see what you were readin'"

Maggie's face went flat. "I'm not sure…"

"ITS BETH," Carl interrupted.

"We don't know that, Carl," Rick added before Daryl could react properly and he saw Maggie nod her head slowly.

"Well who else would know something like that?" Carl asked.

Daryl tried to take it all in as they talked, he tuned them out for a split second and allowed himself to breath. Beth was in Terminus?

"Let me see the damn paper," Daryl huffed, attempting to get up again to take to letter from Glenn.

"Daryl, stop," Maggie's hands were pressing lightly on both of her shoulders, easily keeping him down. "Don't worked up."

Daryl narrowed his eyes at her, "I'm not. I just wanna see the paper."

Maggie bit the inside of her cheek, then took one of her hands off Daryl's shoulder, holding it out for Glenn to bring it to her. He husband walked over to them, stepping around the others, who were beginning to stir and wake up. Before he could give it to Maggie, Daryl reached out and snatched it. Without a word he looked down at the paper smudge with black paint and read:

_Maggie and Glenn,_

_I know, you probably thought I was gone. It seems like everyone else is, but I'm here and Tara told me what car you were in. I got out of the prison with Daryl and somehow wound up in Terminus. He did to. I don't know where he is, somewhere in another car maybe, but I'm getting us all out in a couple of days. _

_Beth._

Daryl kept staring at the paper, unable to put it down. The mannerism of the letter, the wording – it all screamed Beth. He didn't understand how there was any doubt.

"…Daryl?"

He didn't know he said his name, but Daryl looked up. Seeing the group of four had grown. He looked to them and then back to the letter.

"Daryl."

That was Maggie that time and he looked up to stare at her directly in the eye, "She's alive."

Beth Greene was alive and coming for them.

"We don't know that," Rick repeated himself. "These people…they'll do anything."

"They could have tortured it out of her," Maggie said, and Daryl couldn't tell if she was trying not to get her hopes up or if she truly believed it.

"Beth's tough." Daryl interjected. He couldn't believe for a moment that Beth would comprise her family.

"Dar – "

Before someone could say his name in one more gloomy tone, Daryl cut them off. "Wouldn't kill ya to have a little faith."

**AN: Hello everyone!**

**Ack, two weeks. I hurt. I hurt so bad. My stages of grief have been switching from one to many at a time. Mostly it's anger and depression. **I don't know how many of you have tumblr, but lemme tell you... I'm trying my best to stay away from denial and plummet into Team Delusional. Although the theories are KILLER and I would gladly give Gimple my soul if it went down like that. Seriously, I have skeptical cause season four seemed to be where the show peaked though.  
****

**I am however amazed with our fricken fandom. THE SPOON RIOT ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA...OMF. And the petition (if you haven't signed it it's called Bring Beth Back on just so y'know.) it's all so awesome!  
**

**I'm still a proud Beth fan and Bethyl shipper and will be probably forever because I've become so invested. **

**That's the end of my ramble.  
**

**Please keep R&amp;Ring and let me know where you guys stand after these last few weeks! THANK YOU.  
**


	29. Chapter 29

_"It's a little late to be out, isn't it, Beth?"_

_Beth's hand came down from the handle and she swallowed as she turned around to face Gareth. He was standing only a few feet away from her with his hand on his gun in his holster. There was no need to take his gun out though. Staggered on either side of Gareth, two men were with him, both strapped with rifles. Beth connected the dots and assumed they were the missing guards. _

_A stillness filled the air around the four of them as they all exchanged glances. The only thing that could be heard among them out of the silence, was Beth's breathing —a clear give away that she had been running. The three men stood patiently as she caught her breath. Waiting for whatever response she came up with. _

_She said there first thing that came to mind:_

_"I didn't realize there was a curfew," as soon as she spoke, Beth bit her tongue, wondering if her response was too defiant. _

_Gareth just shrugged, "There isn't."_

_"Well, then what's the problem?" Beth felt the small of her back press into to metal handle of the door way. She was trying to make a distance between herself and Gareth's goon squad, who seemed to be slowly inching closer. "If I'm allowed to walk around at night, I don't see one."_

_With a smirk, Gareth took a step back, "There's a difference between walking and skulking, Beth."_

_That's when the stillness ended. Beth instinctively moved for her knife, but before she could grab hold of it, two hand came around her neck. In an instant her feet were in long steady on the ground and her body was being thrown up against the door, her head whipping back hard into the metal — causing her to see stars._

_Beth blinked repeatedly, gasping for air and clawing at the hands. Tears were being forced out of her and she tried to blink those away too. _

_She coughed. The hands grew tighter. _

_She kicked to legs aimlessly at her attacker. The hands grew tighter. _

_She reached helplessly for her knife now missing from its sheath. The hands grew tighter and her blurry, spotted vision became darker._

_With one more cough everything faded and the last thing Beth remembered was hearing Gareth's voice say "That's enough."_

**. . .**

To her own surprise, Beth woke up. Her eyelids twitched and then slowly pried open as she took shallow breaths of stale air. The first thing she saw, were shadows of her feet. They were, again, unsteady – wobbling as she tried to move them under her buckled knees. She was too exhausted to lift her head, but she could feel the iron clamped around both her wrists. She didn't have to look up to know they were restraints.

When Beth did move her head, shooting pain came from her neck, as if the hands were still grasping to it. She moaned softly and it echoed. Beth found it even more painful to make noises than move. She wanted to hang her head and close her eyes again, but forced herself to look.

She was strung up like Christ. But she had no thieves among her. She was alone in the warehouse. There was no sign that Gareth or any of the Terminates were there with her. Although the unlit corners would have been hiding anyone.

The only light that entered the warehouse, came from above. A rectangular hole was cut in the roof, and it wasn't an accident. The hole gave spotlight to a stainless steel table that homed a collection of trays. On the trays, small weapons were shined and organized. There were knives, scissors of all sizes, wrenches – countless items left for her to stare at and imagine their purpose.

She wouldn't let herself though and allowed herself to hang her head again. If she wasn't going to make it out alive, at least she had hopefully left a spark for the groups.

**. . .**

Beth didn't know if she had passed out again, or how much time had passed when the door to the warehouse wheeled opened. The extra light came in through it for the opening, then disappeared moments later.

She didn't have to try to lift her head to know that it was Gareth, accompanied by a minion. She could hear him chat as they crossed the warehouse toward her dangled body.

"Sad to see you like this, Beth," Gareth spoke to her directly as they got closer. "You could have been such a good addition to Terminus."

Beth didn't speak.

"You had me fooled for a while, I'll admit that."

If she could have brought herself too, Beth might have smirked. But all she could do was stare at her shoes.

"But all good thing, do have to come to an end."

Beth heard something being set down onto the warehouse floor and suddenly her boots were accompanied by another set of shoes. A hand came up and placed two fingers below her chin, lifting her head up so that she could make eye contact with him. She narrowed her eyes at him and clenched her teeth to keep herself from moaning and showing weakness.

"I did under estimate you," Gareth chuckled and broke eye contact to look back at his minion, who was setting up a wooden chair and placing a notebook and pencil onto the seat. "But I think _we _upper hand now."

Gareth took a step back and Beth's tried to keep her chin raised as he switched places with the lackey. He picked up the notebook and pencil and sat himself comfortably in the chair. Leaning forward, he opened the book like a student taking notes for class. He nodded for the lackey to what Beth supposed was to begin.

**AN: HELLO HAPPY NEW YEAR LOVES! I hope every one had a wonderful holiday season with their families or whomever you spent it with! My Christmas got a little weird *laughs*. I won't go into too much detail but I did get really mad about Bethyl when finishing a bottle of wine and there was a rant to all my family members. But other than that it was smashing!  
**

**There is a time jump thing going on in this chapter..but I think it makes sense...if not oh well because not every chapter is going to be a success... a lot like TV show episodes *cough* CODA *cough* (I'm still bitter and I have spiralled into Team Dilusional)**

**May 2015 bless Beth Greene not dying from a head shot! **


	30. Chapter 30

The only thing that could be heard inside the warehouse was the sound of flesh pounding against flesh; and of course that breathe escaping Beth with each blow. Each one was harder than the last. Most were to her stomach, others to her face — an odd one or two to her legs. Some of the swings were so hard they sent her flying off her feet into the air behind her, her balance being renewed by the chains when she flew too far.

Every so often there'd be a moment where it stopped and she'd hear a rough voice ask, "Why were you out after dark?" Or "Why were you in the alleyways?"

When she didn't answer, the man would start again.

Beth wished she could physically fight back against the Terminus agent. But even if she wasn't restrained she guessed without weapons, there wasn't a chance. So she fought back in the one way she knew best. With every blow he delivered, Beth kept her blue eyes on him. Her eyes showed that she felt sorry for him, sorry that the world made him that way. But they also showed the hate. It was an unnerving mixture.

With her gaze on him at all times, he became uncomfortable, though he didn't show it at first. But soon Beth could see his eyes flicking away from hers. He tried his best not to make compete eye contact with her, but Beth's eyes followed his seconds after each attempt to avert.

The man paused for a moment longer than usual and didn't ask her any questions. He looked back at Gareth, who was still sitting in the chair, jotting down notes. Gareth looked up when the pounding ceased.

"Why'd you stop?"

Beth continued to look at the man as he turned away from her. She noticed for the first time, the sweat rolling off of him, from his brow and down his face to his neck. Beating the shit out of someone apparently took its toll.

"She ain't talking," the man explained.

"Then loosen her lips," Gareth closed his notebook and walked over to the steel table. He looked at the trays carefully. He picked up a small, but lethal looking serrated knife by the blade and led the handle out. "These aren't just here for show."

The man nodded and took the handle, turning back to Beth. She narrowed her eyes. He held the tip near her narrowed eyes and spoke, "Why were you out after dark?"

Beth spat the mixture of saliva and blood from her mouth onto his shirt, already covered in her blood, "Go to hell."

A chuckled came from the man and a smiled played at his lips. Then it suddenly dropped. Stepping closer into Beth, he used his free hand to grab her hair, pulling her in by it. He was now inches away from her, the knife hovering above her brow.

Beth kept her gaze on him for another moment before the blade dug into her flesh.

That's when she screamed. Beth wriggled and thrashed and felt it digging deeper and gliding across her forehead. Her throat burned and it was like the air was leaving her again. She kept her eyes shut tight. When she did try to open them, her vision from her left eye was blurred by a wave of crimson. She shut them again.

**. . .**

An argument erupted in the car as soon as the letter was explained to those who had been sleeping. While some, like Michonne, just gave a somewhat doubtful looked. Others were opinionated.

"_Beth?_ Maggie's _little_ sister." Abraham asked, dumbfounded. "_The hundred-pound-soaking-wet-doe-eyed-blonde-girl_ you t'bout?"

"I said she's tough," Daryl grumbled, half of it because of the pain.

"She took care of a baby, she didn't go on runs," Sasha tried to reason.

"She's older than me," Carl added. Daryl couldn't believe Carl was the only one taking his side.

He was fine with Abraham not believing in her. But the people she spent months, even years with doubting her pissed him off. Did her own sister truly think it was impossible for Beth to survive without a protector? He _wanted_ to protect Beth. But it didn't mean she wasn't capable of it when it came down to it.

"She's a Greene though..." Bob was suddenly putting his two cents in. "Now, I know I wasn't at the prison very long. But I spent a lot of time with Maggie and I spent a lot of time with Hershel — two of the most stubborn people I know."

"Stubborn doesn't mean surviving," Maggie said, as she tried to figure out where Bob was coming from.

"Doesn't it? We've all refused to die so far," Bob said to the car. "She may not have the biggest body or risked her life outside the wall before the prison fell. But in other ways she was brave. She did her job."

Daryl nodded to every syllable Bob spoke. He was good with words, unlike Daryl.

Sasha shook her head along with the other, "There's not always a silver lining, Bob."

Bob smiled, "We'll find out tomorrow if that's true or not."

**. . .**

Beth woke up to blood pooled and drying at her feet.

She found it nearly impossible to open her left eye, which was not only swollen from a new black eye, but crusted with blood. She moved her head, whimpering as she did, her body throbbed everywhere.

The man who had beat her was gone. She didn't know where he went or when he left, but it must have been hours. Gareth still remained. He was back in his chair, writing away. She could only see half of his body illuminated by a lantern though. The light from the rectangular hole was completely gone.

Gareth looked up when he heard her whimper and the chains move, "You're up. Good." He got up and walked over to Beth. "Pesky things, head wounds. They bleed so much and you pass out." Cupping her swollen cheek, Gareth rubbed his thumb across the wound. Or at least the bandaging now covering the wound. Beth could feel the fabric pressing against cut and winced. "I had it fixed up for you, so you wouldn't bleed out before I got what I wanted."

He continued to run his thumb along the bandage as he stared at Beth. She knew he was trying to put a spin on her version of unnerving. But Beth wouldn't play games with him and all she could think of was the pain everywhere. She looked away and could tell he thought himself triumphant for it.

Gareth released her cheek soon after and went to fetch his lantern. Without another word he crossed the warehouse and left Beth hanging for the second night. When he was completely gone, Beth whispered to herself, "You'll die last."

She wanted to see the look on his face when Terminus burned.

**AN: WOOHOO THIRTY CHAPTERS. I'm so excited (but actually like crying on the inside because I'm not even half way done - Terminus will be wrapped up shortly though!) Thanks to everyone who's stuck around and read it up to this point and thank you to all the new comers too! If y'all could do me a tiny little favor and leave LOTS of reviews to celebrate that' would be rad (I am fueled by compliments *she says with no shame*)**

**ANYWHO. Beth's part is a little dark (duh) and she'd getting darker herself... but Bob was a cheery little bugger before he was shish ka-BOBed (too soon?) and I hope his hope made it a little better. **

**Thanks again everyone! REVIEW LIKE MY SELF ESTEEM DEPENDS ON IT. **


	31. Chapter 31

Daryl could feel the others moving around in the car, but he didn't open his eyes. He wanted to savour the last few minutes he had before he did open them and spend a long day – and most likely night – waiting. He didn't want to listen to the other's doubts either.

"Smells like death in here."

Daryl stirred when he heard a grumble come from across the car. Of course it smelled. As he moved, his felt arm spasm slightly and he tried to get a control of it without drawing attention. The shaking had almost stopped when he felt a hand on his arm. It was grabbing on to his soaked bandage. Daryl opened his eyes finally.

It was Maggie. Crouched down beside him as usual.

"What?" Daryl asked as he studied Maggie's face. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she was chewing at her bottom lip.

"You're sweating," Maggie said.

"It's Georgia," Daryl tried to shrug. He didn't want to admit he was freezing.

Maggie didn't bother to argue with Daryl, she simply started untying the bandage to take a look at the wound. Daryl stopped watching her and gave his attention to the car, everyone was awake and keeping their line of sight away from him. Except for Carl, who looked over at him for a few seconds before turning his attention back to the crack in the door. He was waiting too.

"You really don't think she's out there?" Daryl mumbled to Maggie, not bothering to look her in the eye.

"Daryl, I really don't want to – DAMMIT!"

Daryl snapped his attention back to her and watched her throw the bandage onto car floor.

"So that's what smells like death," Abraham peered over Maggie's figure at Daryl's arm.

**. . .**

Beth stared at the Terminate standing a few feet away from her with her one good eye. He was inspecting the stainless steel table. He was new. The man that had tortured her the night day before wasn't anywhere in sight, and neither was Gareth.

"Where's the boss?" Beth asked. He voice almost too soft for her to hear herself. She was exhausted.

The man didn't respond, but picked up a shiny pair of scissors and twirled the blade around in his fingers. Beth could have laughed at the cliché bad guy moment if she wasn't worried about what he was planning to do with them.

"He'll be along shortly," The man answered after a few minutes, "I have to get a few things out of the way first."

"You sure he wants you touching me before he arrives?" Beth knew that Gareth didn't want her dead yet, but she couldn't vouch for others and he wasn't here to control the man.

The man came closer to Beth and laced his hands in her blonde hair, which had long since fallen out of its pony. Beth felt her chest heaving as he pulled his fingers through the mats. Some of the strands peeled off of her blood soaked face as he pulled harder. When his hand found the braid that was still hanging from the remnants of her pony, he brought the scissors up to her scalp and to the base of the plats.

"Boss want's a souvenir," and with that line the scissors closed and the man pulled his hand away with a first full of her braid.

Beth felt her jaw open slightly and the air came out of her in a sigh of relief. A long time ago, she would have thought a missing chunk of hair was traumatic, but now there were worse things.

As the man placed the scissors back onto the table, Beth heard the door to the warehouse wheel open and Gareth made his entrance. AS he got closer, the Terminate tossed the braid in his direction and Gareth caught it with one hand.

"I told you I hated your hair like that," Gareth laughed as he pocketed it. A laugh came from the Terminate Gareth brought his attention to him, "You can have a seat for now. I'm taking over."

"No notes today?" Beth muttered.

Gareth paused as he reached for a wrench, "I think I have everything I need on you."

Gareth picked up the wrench and walked towards Beth, she took a deep breath to prepare herself for as he readied himself to take the swing, aiming for her ribs.

The first blow came and Beth's eyes shut tightly. She pried them open again to watch him bring the tool behind him again for the second, but as he swung, the earth shook.

Gareth was immediately thrown off his feet and Beth heard the stainless steel table of instruments crash to the floor as well. She looked for the man who had cut her hair. The chair he had been sitting on was on its side, with him struggling to his feet beside it.

As the shaking stopped, Gareth manage to get to his feet too, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

The Terminate shrugged and was about to speak when yelling started coming from outside, then gun fire. The man took a step towards the door, but Gareth stooped him.

"I'll deal with whatever's going on out there," Gareth dug into the pocket opposite of the one he had put Beth's braid in. He pressed a key into the man's hand, "You get her down and in a new hold block."

"Yes, sir," He man turned away as Gareth headed across the warehouse, pulling his gun from the holster as he disappeared through the door.

The man brought the key to the lock on the shackles and unlocked Beth's right wrist quickly, then he left. Beth fell to the ground and moaned and she came down onto the rips that she guessed Gareth had just broken.

"Quiet," the man ordered, he was trying to listen to the gunfire outside. Beth tried to stand and he pressed her back down with the heel of his boot. She moan again. "I said quiet."

"You're supposed to move…" Beth was cut off by another shriek from outside. The man lifted his boot off of her and stared at the door.

Beth didn't stop to think as she saw her window of opportunity. While his attention was away from her, Beth moved herself towards the fallen trays and grasps at whatever sharp object she could get to first.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" The man grabbed at the collar of Beth's shirt, pulling her up from the ground. "Trying to pull a fast one on…"

Before he could see it coming, Beth shoved the weapon in between his bottom two ribs. He yelled and dropped her to the ground, she pulled the weapon out on her way down and noticed then they were the scissors.

"You little bitch!"

Beth hauled herself up, letting the adrenalin take over and forget about her injures. The man went to grab her again and she swiped at him with the scissors. His hand went for his own gun on his belt and she backed herself up to the table. She spotted a knife and grabbed it by the blade, ready to throw it, she'd only done it once before and it had gone…okay…but it was worth a try.

Beth flung he knife in his direction just as his gun came up. The shot went off just as the blade planted itself in his shoulder.


	32. Chapter 32

"That had to be her!" Carl called as he peeled himself off the floor of the car. He was looking directly at Daryl, who was wincing as Maggie apologized.

Something – god knows what – had shaken the entire car almost all the way off its cement blocks. As the car shook everyone inside was aimlessly tossed around. Some, like Glenn and Rick, had completely lost their footing and been thrown across the car, while other's had simply buckled to the ground.

Daryl himself was thrown from his sitting position onto his injured side and Maggie was thrown right on top of him, pressing the wound even closer to the floor and causing Daryl to – of all things – howl in pain. Before the shaking had even ceased, Maggie was pushing herself off of him and calling for Glenn. Rick and Michonne were calling for Carl, Sasha was calling for Bob. And Rosita and Abraham were simultaneously calling for Eugene.

"It was something," Rick said as he walked toward the door to stare out the slit. "There's gun fire in the distance…automatic."

"What in the hell does that mean for us?" Abraham yelled and joined Rick at the door.

Daryl hauled himself up groaning with every movement and ignored Maggie's objections. He listened closely and heard a shrill shriek carry from the distance, "It means we're getting out."

**. . .**

The first shot whizzed past Beth's temple – missing her by centimeters – and lodged itself in the all behind her. A second on shot off right after the first as the impact of the knife cause the man's shoulder to jerk back. Beth hit the deck as his finger pulled the trigger the second time, but was on her feet seconds later as she heard he definite sound of it exiting through the ceiling. She stared at the man in disbelief for a moment, then sprinted in his direction before he could come out of shock.

Beth lunged herself at his waist and took his to the ground. A third shot went off and Beth attempted to smack the gun out of his hand. Before he could though, his senses came back and he was pulling her off him by her hair. He was almost to his feet and Beth screamed as reached for the knife in his shoulder. She whipped it out and the wound sprayed blood into her face. She tried to dig it into his flesh again before the barrel of the gun came to her chin.

"Drop…" the man paused to breath, "…it."

Beth's eyes narrowed into slits before she released her grip and the knife clattered to the ground. The man lowered the gun, laughing as he dropped her onto her feet, quickly grapping her wrist with his free hand before she could whirl away.

"You still don't have what you want from me, you can't kill me," Beth breathed. Although, she knew fair well he could.

"I think I can prince…" before he could finished, Beth thrust the palm of her free hand forward into his nose. His head flew back and immediately his hands came up to his nose to try to stop the blood that began to gush out.

Beth dove as the gun fell from his hand, gritting her teeth and she landed on her side again. The corner of her mouth twitched as her fingers wrapped around the handle of the gun, her index finger sliding onto the trigger. She didn't hesitate when he heard the angry cry and the footsteps coming towards her. Beth rolled onto her back and her other hand came up to the other side of the handle. He was a foot away from her when she pulled down and she fired _her_ first shot.

The bullet landed, more or less, right in between the man's eyebrows and Beth watched as he fell to the ground beside her, dead. Beth let her head fall back onto the floor and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments, attempting to catch her breath. _Two._ She had now killed two people. Beth could feel her hands, still clamped around the gun, shaking as she rested them on her stomach.

Two.

Beth rolled her head to the side and looked at the body beside her. He was on his stomach, staring at her with his dead eyes.

She took a moment to think, what he would have done if it was the other way around. He wouldn't be in the warehouse still. He wouldn't be staring in remorse at his would be killer. So Beth didn't allow herself to any longer.

Carefully she got to her feet and held the gun down at her side. She scanned what she could see of the warehouse quickly. Beth grabbed her discarded knife and placed it in her empty sheath on her belt and walked over to the table. She grabbed a few smaller objected, stuffed a few more knives into her belt and was just about to leave when she noticed the key on the ground.

Beth bent down to pick it up and this time let the twitch at the corner of her mouth, turn into a full smirk. The skeleton key Gareth had shown her once before. He had given it to the guard to unlock her. He was honest to god confident enough that she couldn't escape that he gave the man the key!

Beth pocket it and ran across the warehouse to make her exit.

Beth paused before opening the door and listened. She could hear the moans indicating the walkers not too far from it. She checked her clip, she had seven rounds and one in the chamber. After she used all those, she'd be back to her knife.

With a deep breath, Beth pulled the door open. There were four walkers that immediately turned her attention to her. She decided to out run them instead of using her bullets and moved quickly around the building. She pressed her back against the alleyway wall near the door looked around, trying to get her bearings. In the distance, Beth could see fire and smoke rising from it. The propane tank. Something had caused it to blow up.

Beth ran her fingers through her hair. Something bigger was going on. She had no idea how much time she had until the hellfire rain down on her as well. She couldn't go back to her room and get the crossbow. She couldn't open the doors of all the other cars.

Gun fire ran out and Beth knew it was close to her. It was a single weapon though. One person taking down walkers as they went along. Around the other side of the warehouse. Beth tightened her grip on the gun and started down the alleyway she knew she could get the upper hand if she came up from behind.

When Beth got to the end of the alleyway, she paused and peered around the corner at the shooter. From head to toe they were red. Covered in walker blood. Beth watched as the figure took down a walker with a single shot. They were carrying an assault rifle. Beth could use that.

Slowly Beth held her gun up and began to follow the figure as they moved along. When she was close enough in shooting range, she started slowing down even more, ready to fire. Beth was just about to pull the trigger for her second shot into the figures head when she heard a moan come from behind her.

Beth grunted, knowing her position was already comprised by the stupid creature, and wheeled around. Now, instead, firing her bullet into its skull. As the walker fell, Beth half expected to have a bullet in her back, but instead had time to turn back around to face the red figure she had been stalking.

For a moment, they both stood there, guns raise and fingers on the triggers until a voice rang out.

"Beth!"

Beth's eyes widened as the familiar voice called her name and she began to lower the gun, "Carol?"

**AN: I always wanted Beth and Carol to kick some serious ass together. **

**Carol is not here for Rick and them just so y'all know. I'm taking the premise of No Sanctuary and changing it up into my own. So yeah. **


	33. Chapter 33

Carol followed, as Beth lead their way through Terminus, picking up discarded weapons as she ran out of ammo. Beth took care of the walkers that came out of nowhere, taking her knife to their heads as they got too close. Carol took care of the ones in the distance. They both knew their job without having to discuss it.

When Beth was reunited with Carol, she didn't embrace the woman, but she shared a gaze with her that they both understood. They were with family now and they were getting out. Beth had questions for Carol. She wanted to know why she was there, how she got in, but she knew it wasn't the time for questions. Terminus was almost overran with walkers and she could hear the screaming in the distance.

When their gazes shifted, Beth saw Carol's had gone toward the fence, toward a wooded area, she wanted to leave then and there. Beth spoke breathlessly as the woman took her first steps towards their supposed exit, "Maggie!"

Carol paused, "She's here?"

Beth nodded.

"Where?"

"Across the compound! In the train cars!" Beth didn't wait for Carol to respond after she spoke, she took off in the direction of the cars and seconds later she had heard Carol's footsteps behind her.

Beth had slipped the gun into her waistband as she felt Carol's bullet's flying passed her and took out her knife. She knew she was able to handle up close and personal by now, whereas Carol had always been the one with a very accurate long distance shot.

A walker came out from an alleyway then and Beth immediately took it down, gritting her teeth as she pulled the knife out of the soft skull. She breathed in heavily and looked behind her and Carol caught up, and new rifle strapped to her. "We're getting closer to the heart of Terminus."

"That's where the fence got taken down. There's going to be people there," Carol nodded towards to smoke and Beth could hear the screaming more prominently now.

"I know," Beth breath, switching her knife for her gun once again and checking the safety.

"And you're okay with that?" She of course didn't know what had just happened in the warehouse.

Beth was more than okay with it. She didn't care who she would have to face out of them. She didn't care if some of them genuinely thought of her as a friend. They were nothing more than walkers themselves in her opinion.

Without answering Carol, Beth started off again. Taking down walkers and listening to the screams.

As they got even closer, Beth saw hints of flames from the propane tank. The screams were now mixed with the moans of walkers. When she rounded the corner, the fence and flames were now in clear view.

Beth stopped, scanning the scene. Some of the Terminates were sure putting up a fight, others were running and trying to avoid the walkers at all cost. She watched as a familiar face from the painting warehouse tripped trying to escape four walkers. They didn't get back up to say the least. Beth back peddled before anyone saw her, bumping into Carol as she pressed herself against the wall.

"There's more walkers than there are people, but they all have weapons," Beth explained.

"So we need to do this quickly?"

"Yes."

"Are you ready?" Carol asked, checking her clip again and flicking her eyes to Beth's gun.

Beth nodded.

Carol took the lead then, firing immediately as she came out from around the wall. Beth followed, wanting to save her rounds for when she truly needed them, she kicked down a walker and brought her foot down onto its skull.

The Terminates' and walker's attention were turned to the two of them straight away. The Terminates didn't realize at first whose side Beth and Carol were on. They were taking down walkers, but soon they noticed they were also getting them down as one of Carol's bullets flew through someone's brain. They didn't know who exactly to fight as the walkers kept coming in through the gates and Beth and Carol kept shooting.

Beth kept counting her rounds along with the people she shot, she was on five people and down to two bullets. She'd been pushing walkers into walls or people to save the ammo or she would have been out already. She pulled her knife out with her other hand as she kept her gun aimed on a Terminates' head.

She was about to take the shot when someone called.

"BETH!" at first she thought it was Carol who called her name, but as Beth turned her head she found Gareth, pointing _his_ gun at _her_ head. "Shoot her, I shoot you."

Beth lowered her gun to take out a walker nearing her with her knife, but raised it again on the girl, "Then do it. You shouldn't need to give me a warning."

It was true, if Gareth hadn't called her name, she'd be dead already.

Gareth kept his eyes and aim steadily on her, he was in his own world, or at least that's what it looked like to Beth. He didn't notice anything, not the walkers, or Carol shooting his people. He was focused on Beth alone.

"I wanted to look you in the eyes as you realized you lost," Gareth smirked.

"I haven't lost, Gareth. You have. Terminus is finished," Beth lowered switched her gun from where it was aiming on the woman, who was long since out of shooting position, to Gareth. "People are running and dying and Terminus is burning."

Gareth's grip on his gun wavered as his wrist shook slightly, "Shut up. You're going to die. You've lost."

"You're going to die. You've lost," Beth mimicked him. Not letting her gun waver, though.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Gareth yelled and hysterical laughter began to bubble in him.

"It's over Gareth," Beth said and pulled the trigger, her bullet flying towards Gareth.

However, it missed. As Beth pulled the trigger, she heard her name and this time it was Carol calling her. Warning her. Beth had been so distracted by Gareth that she failed to notice the walk ready to bite her arm.

In the split second Beth heard her name, she turn and pierced the walkers chest with the knife that was still in her hand. It slowed the creature down, of course, but didn't kill it and Beth had to jerk the blade out of the chest in time to gouge it through the walker's forehead.

Beth heard Carol's gun going off again and turned to see the spot Gareth was standing in before was now vacant. Carol was shooting at him as he ran toward the crushed fence. Just missing him as went. Beth dropped her knife and placed both hands her gun as he neared the fence, breathing rapidly as she waited for the perfect moment to take her shot.

Beth pulled the trigger on her last round and waited for Gareth to fall and the bullet when whizzing towards him. But he didn't. The bullet grazed Gareth's thigh and she heard him howl and watched as he grabbed onto it, but he kept running. Away from a burning Terminus.

"NO!" Beth cried. She felt flexing her finger down on the trigger but she knew the clip was empty.

"Beth!" Carol called her name again. She turned her head and saw that everyone who was alive at the fence, was now lying dead among them. They had to go to the train car and they had to let Gareth go. Beth clenched her jaw and threw the empty gun away from her, then picked up the knife she had discarded.

Beth jogged to where Carol was standing and nodded in the direction of the cars. Gareth didn't matter. She was as minutes away from her sister. Beth took off and slowly fished for the key in her pocket as she passed the first of the train car. Trying not to feel a pang of guilt as she could hear the pounding inside of the people she promised to free.

She'd come back for them if she could.

"Which one Beth?" Carol asked as she eyes flicked around at the train cars.

"It's just up there," Beth pointed, but another car was blocking the view, "behind that one!"

Beth felt every emotion imaginable as she neared the train car. She was excited, and the adrenaline was still pumping through her veins. But she was nauseous, to see her sister after so long, to see her brother in law in the state she was in. And she was without Daryl. The person she told them she was with, who was in Terminus somewhere.

Her heart was racing, how could she explain any of it? How could she –

Suddenly Beth skidded to a halt as Train Car A came into view and her stomach dropped. Her fingers fumbled with the skeleton key and there was the noise of metal hitting concrete as the key sprang out of sight. It didn't matter though.

In front of Beth, was an empty train car. Half off it cement blocks and the door ajar with a broken lock. No the second time, Beth cried, "NO!" She looked behind her, Carol was standing there looking as confused as Bet felt, "It was…there was…"

Beth could feel herself on the verge of hyperventilating as she looked back at the car. She felt a hand brush her arm and she turned to Carol one more time. She could see the hoard of walkers that had followed them to the cars.

"We gotta go, Beth."

**AN: Did just tease a Bethyl reunion and not give you the Bethyl reunion? ****Sorry not sorry. I'm embracing my inner Gimple. (I'm not bitter, I swear). What's everyone thinking of the back half of season 5? I enjoyed all the Daryl feels and _finally_ watching Maggie grieve. But I'm on Denial Isle about what's going on with Beth though…like it all seems fishy…either that or they just reaaaalllly screwed up...idk! **

**I DO NOT WANT A FUNERAL, BUT I NEED A FUNERAL IF THEY'RE GOING WITH THE WHOLE "SHE'S ACTUALLY DEAD" THING. Please, just give her a proper send off. Ugh. **

**Let me know your back half feelings and what you thought of the really mean but necessary chapter. **

**Guess where we're going next. **


	34. Chapter 34

_Getting out of the train car, was easier than they thought it would be. After planning for so long, after all the complications, all it took was a few minutes of several people ruthlessly ramming the door and soon the lock was cracked and the door bent out of shape. It didn't even take all of them. Daryl least off all as the oldest Greene sister holding him back. _

_No one stopped them. No one was watching them. They were all too busy to be bothered by the food storage escaping. _

_After that, they only had a quick run to the fence. But it wasn't quick for him. Daryl not only needed help out of the car, but to and over the fence. When he tried to boost himself over the first time, he could feel whatever part of his wound that had already healed, separating. By the time they reached their hidden weapons. He was wobbling and breathing heavily. _

"_We have to stop before he passes out," Someone had said, he didn't know who._

"_Not yet," Rick ordered. They listened and Daryl felt someone come up come him, throwing his arm over their shoulder to help him walk again. Maggie. _

"_Which way now?" that was Glenn. _

"_Around the perimeter of the fence, past the smoke. We can't go the way we got here," Rick said, already starting to walk away._

**. . .**

Maggie was talking at him, saying something important to him about his freshly opened wound, which was dripping blood and puss into the leaves where he sat. They had to bind it? Burn it? He didn't really know or care at the moment. Which he knew was stupid. But he only had one thing on his mind:

_They had left Beth behind. _

He hadn't seen her face, or heard her voice, but Daryl knew they had left her behind. He didn't know how else to explain Terminus going up in flames, the fence being crushed. The propane tank. He knew one way or another, it all had to do with her. And maybe some unknown third party by the looks of the mayhem that was caused.

"It's not safe to stop here," Rick hissed at Maggie, who was attempting to light a fire.

"He's right," Daryl said, attempting to get up from the tree he was leaning on.

Maggie shoved him back down, hissing right back at both of them, "If I don't do this now, it's gonna get worse. If you wanna keep moving, we'll catch up."

Daryl watched Rick's jaw clench. He and Maggie knew that after everything, there was no way Rick was separating from them, not even with the smoke from Terminus looming in the distance, "Just do it quickly."

"Okay," Maggie said and as she spoke a spark formed. She breathed in relief and began blowing on it, attempting to make the flame larger. "Carl, hand me a knife."

The boy looked up from the bag he had been digging in for his own weapon and quickly handed it to Maggie. She tossed the blade into the small flame she had going (guess she had meant burning), chewing on her bottom lip as she did. He had told her before. She was no doctor. By the same nervous looks on everyone's faces, they remembered her saying it too.

"So what exactly is the plan here," Daryl grumbled. His face fell flat as Maggie's hands went to her belt and she began undoing it.

"Weren't you listening before?" Maggie griped, "I'm gonna burn off the dead skin, and seal the wound."

"And that's going to..help?" Daryl asked as Maggie shoved her belt into his hands.

Maggie continued to bite nervously at her lip, "I think so..."

Daryl opened his mouth to deliver a sarcastic remark, but as he did, Abraham, for what seemed like the thousandth time, cut him off, "It could be a blood infection."

Nobody responded to that. They weren't doctors, but most, if not all, knew that required medicine they didn't have.

"…I think it's hot enough," Maggie piped, grabbing the belt she had just shoved into Daryl's hands away from him. She held it up with both hands in front of him. "I need you to bite on this. Hard. You can't scream."

Daryl nodded, wobbling slightly as he did. Rick crouched down beside him and put his hand on his good arm to steady him. He took to belt and placed between his teeth, he bit down has hard as he could on the rough leather.

"Ready?" Maggie asked as she lifted the glowing blade from the flames. He nodded again, then – without any other warning – she pressed the searing blade to his flesh and began to carve.

**. . .**

Beth's feet kept getting caught up in the underbrush as they jogged through the forest. The adrenaline she had felt before, that had powered her through Terminus, was now all but gone. She could feel the pain returning to her neck, her sides and her swollen eye; even the follicles of hair on her head hurt from being tugged at so roughly. Then on top of it. There was the feeling of defeat.

Not only had her and Carol not rescued Maggie, Glenn…or Daryl, but Gareth had gotten away too. The one thing Beth had promised herself she wouldn't let happen. She didn't know where to go to from there. She didn't have a skeleton key to free Daryl, her sister was running around, probably halfway to Atlanta or something now. And they had gone the opposite direction of Gareth.

"Don't think about it right now," Beth looked up from grabbing at her sore side. Carol hadn't bothered to turn around to say it to her. It wasn't to comfort Beth. She was telling her.

Beth was a little baffled with Carol's coldness, "What?"

"We have to get where we're going first," Carol explained, still not looking back. "When we get there, _then _you can be vulnerable. But for now I need you."

Beth nodded first, forgetting she wasn't looking at her, then replied firmly, "Okay."

Beth readjusted her grip on her knife and clenched her jaw to ignore the thumping pain. She tired pulling all her senses into the world around her at that very moment. Carol was right. How many times had Beth cheated death already? She needed to stay alert or her luck might run dry.

**AN: Parallels. Parallels everywhere.**


	35. Chapter 35

"Daryl! Shhh! PLEASE!" Maggie was completely white, blotting at the wound with Rosita's dirty shirt. Even when he tried his best, he couldn't keep from groaning from the agony and it echoed in the woods.

Rick was pacing, he was long past his point of patience, "Are we ready yet?"

"No it still has to be closed," Maggie said, placing the knife back into the fire.

Closed?!Daryl thought she'd already done that! Did he black out as she was carving?

Abraham looked about as fed up as Rick, "_And then he'll need to rest and then he'll need help walking still and then…_"

"Could shut your mouth for two seconds?" Rosita snarled at him, "His girl is the reason we're out."

Guess Rosita believed it now too. But the only thing Daryl could think to say was, "She ain't my girl." Rosita rolled her eyes. Daryl leaned his head back on the tree and closed his eyes. He didn't want to talk about it anymore.

He could still hear Rick pacing, "How much long?"

"I need a few more minutes," Maggie's voice was soft, exhausted from Rick hassling her.

Daryl continued to lean his head back for a few more minutes, listening to the people around him. Rick constantly pacing.

Then the pacing stopped.

"Something's coming," Rick growled. Daryl's eyes snapped open. Something _was _coming their way and it was moving way too fast to be a walker. "Close it now."

As soon as the words were out of Rick's mouth, Maggie was grabbing on to Daryl's arm – a little more roughly than intended - and snatching the blade out of the fire. Daryl quickly picked up the belt he had let drop to his lap before. But he before he could even get it him his mouth, Maggie was pressing the knife against his skin.

His vision started turning white. Daryl screamed and tried to pull away. He felt someone press against his side, holding his there. A large hand grabbed the belt he had flinched away from his mouth and stuffing it between his teeth. "As soon as it's closed, get him up." It was Abraham.

It must have been closed soon after, even though Daryl didn't feel the knife being pulled away, because they were hauling him up on either side.

"The rest of you go ahead! Michonne, Sasha, you're with him!" Rick was pulling his machete out as the noises were getting closer and closer to them. "Move now."

Abraham and Maggie were turning him to go the opposite direction. But the as soon as they turned, the noises ceased. The person had already broken through the trees and was with them.

"You." Ricks voice was low and dangerous.

"Please, I don't have a weapon!" they all recognized the voice.

Daryl felt a drop on his right side. Maggie had stepped away from him. Then there was a drop on his left. Abraham too. Daryl could feel himself sinking, but he used what little energy he had left to turn around. To face him.

Gareth was standing in front of Rick, the machete the he was holding out at arm's length, separating them. He was looking like the scared kid Daryl already knew he was. Gareth's eyes were wide, and he was shaking – covered in blood on his thigh that he was holding on to.

"Please," Gareth repeated himself.

"And why would we do that?" Ricked asked, "Why would we show you mercy?"

"How long were you in that car?" Gareth's eyes narrowed a bit, "a week? Two? We were in there for _months_. You've felt it before, being hungry. But have you ever starved? We were just trying to live."

"There are other ways," Rick's grip was tightening on the handle of his machete. "Plus," he nodded his head down to Gareth's leg, "you don't look like you got much longer."

"It's not a bite," Gareth's eyes narrowed more. "It's a gun shot."

"I honestly don't give a shit," Rick pulled his machete back to swing. But before he could bring it down, he was interrupted.

"WAIT!" It was Eugene.

Rick slowed his swing, but didn't take his eyes off Gareth, "What?"

"How does one come by a gun shot when we weren't the one's shooting?"

Gareth smirked, "Do you know something I don't?"

"Friendly fire?" Rick asked Gareth, ignoring his question.

"Coulda been," Gareth's smile deepened.

Daryl started moving himself forward, past Maggie and beside Rick, "Answer the question."

"Oh, I get." Gareth laughed.

Rick snarled under his breath and pressed the machete against Gareth's neck, "You're going tell us what you _get_, now."

"I don't have to."

"From where I'm standing. You don't have a choice," Daryl barked at him.

"You're gonna kill me either way, right?" Gareth laughed again, "So. I think I really do."

Rick pressed harder, "Do you?"

"Rick, this could all be a mind game," Sasha warned.

"Yeah, Rick, it could be," Gareth still looked scared, but he was done begging.

For a moment everyone was quiet, trying to anticipate Rick's next move. He wasn't going to let Gareth talk to him like that, but he knew it wasn't a mind game. Gareth was calculating what to do next.

"Fine," Gareth laughed again, "does the archer have a pretty girlfriend?"

Daryl's face and stomach dropped, "What are you talking 'bout?" He turned to Maggie, who was stepping forward behind him. She said she hadn't mentioned her to anyone.

Gareth lifted his hand from his thigh – letting blood gush out – and reached for his pocket. Rick nervously moved forward and pressed harder once again. "Ah, I said I don't have a weapon." Gareth continued to reach into his pocket, digging for something.

Then he pulled in out. At first Daryl couldn't tell what it was through all the blood. But then the sun hit it and he could see each weaved plait. Gareth tossed it at over her him, Daryl wobbled as he caught it.

Before anything else could happen, before anyone else could say or do anything, Maggie pushed pass Daryl and Rick. An angry cry escaped her and in the blink of an eye, the knife she had used to close Daryl's wound, was in Gareth's chest. She pulled it out with another cry, and Gareth coughed, spitting blood in her face as she did. He sunk to the ground in front of Maggie, smiling as he did. He oldest Greene sister stepped back, heaving her chest and holding back tears.

Gareth gurgled, trying to speak, coughing out more and more blood as he did, "I'll give Beth your regards."

**AN: I CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE THEY'LL BE TOGETHER SOON! Before I get to forty at least.**


	36. Chapter 36

Beth wiped her knife on her jeans as she stepped over the walker that she had just taken down. She heard more moans coming from ahead of her and looked up to see four more stumbling towards her and Carol. She flashed her eyes quickly toward Carol to see which direction she was taking and once she knew, Beth quickly headed right towards her two.

Their awkward steps were almost even to each other and Beth swiftly brought her leg up, kicking one to stagger them away from her and give more space for the kill. One to the eye. Another straight the forehead. She didn't bother wiping her knife again.

That was more than a dozen they had taken down. All heading to Terminus.

Beth turned around. The smoke was still visible, but barely. She exhaled a little bit and the muscles in her shoulders tried to slump. She screamed, in her mind at herself. _Stay alert_. Although she didn't know how much longer she could take.

She'd been following Carol for what seemed to be an hour at least. Thinking of anything to keep her from falling to the floor of the forest; focusing on identifying the noises from walkers and the silent queues from Carol.

If Carol was fatigued, she wasn't showing it.

"Beth," Carol called to her for the first time since they climbed over the fence.

Beth straightened her shoulders, "Yeah?"

"It's not too far now," Carol said and nodded her head forward. Beth could see light breaking through the trees ahead of them.

"What's up there?"

"A road."

Beth felt her stomach drop a bit. She wondered if it was safe, thinking of the herds that weaved their way along roads and trapped her and Daryl more than once. She stopped herself almost immediately when the thought came through her mind.

All those walkers they'd taken down were only a small percentage of the one's that were finding their way to end of the line. If they could take down enforced fences, they could take down doors of train cars…

Beth shook her head and quickly began following carol onto the road.

She could hear walkers immediately and turned to a small group of them a ways down the road. They were filing from one side to the other, like little ducklings. They didn't even notice her and Carol as they heading in the opposite direction.

It felt like another hour past as they headed up the road, though Beth could tell her mind was playing games with her by that point. _Almost there, almost there_. Beth repeated to herself over and over. Her legs began to shake as the road began to slope.

_Almost there_.

With every step, the incline seemed raise itself even higher.

_Almost there._

Beth thought she saw Carol look back at her.

_Almost there._

The road began to coast to a flatter surface. A shack came into view. Twenty feet away.

Beth quickly met pace with Carol a met her eyes for the woman to confirm that the shack was their destination. She saw the corner of Carol's mouth twitch and she nodded. Beth moved her shaking legs as fast as she could.

Then she caught sight of the door handle beginning move ever so slightly. She paused and bit her lip nervously. Carol didn't seem to be bothered by it at all though.

Slowly, the door began to open and Beth watched as a gigantic figure backed themselves out of the doorway. His huge stature was very familiar to her and it clicked with her almost instantly that it was Tyreese.

In a strained voice, Beth called his name. He turned around. One arm was raised in a small wave and the other supporting a bundle of blankets. He was smiling. Carol had stopped beside her. Letting herself smile now as well as she watched the blonde.

Beth didn't move. She could feel her eyes welling and she began to tremble from more than just exhaustion as Tyreese walked towards them. The closer he got, the more she trembled. Reaching her arms out for the bundle, she let her knife drop.

Slowly, Tyreese placed the bundle into her arms. She tried to stabilize herself to keep her from dropping it, but her legs weren't in her control anymore. Beth carefully let herself sink to her knees and felt the tears wet her cheeks as she pressed her forehead to little baby Judith's.

**Yo. It's been a year since I started this and was DYING from the hiatus. Now I'm glad it's here because honestly season 5 was torturous. I'm not saying that JUST because of what happened with Beth, but as a whole the season was just disappointing. I felt like they paced everything in a really strange matter and I expected more for all the characters in general...I saw the Jessick thing coming because of the comics but still...fucking Rick man. (except Carol cause she KILLED IT. GOD I LOVE MMB)**

**Anyway. I am really excited for the Fear The Walking Dead because there'll be fresh new faces to fall in love with and ultimately lose because they had a glimmer of hope and I love the way they replace one blonde with another and one black person with another. Really, I do (not). But seriously I still am going to was the companion series. **

**Okay loves. I'll stop ranting now. And honestly I don't know how many of you are still reading this to see my rant. **

**Read and review *she sweats nervously***


	37. Chapter 37

The woods were silent except from the sobs coming from Maggie, who was now shaking on the forest floor beside Gareth's body; Glenn was on the ground beside her, his hands underneath her elbows from his failed attempt to catch her when she fell. Everyone else was silently standing around them. Not knowing what to say or what to do; their shoulders becoming rigid every time Maggie breathed out an ear piercing howl.

She had been alive, like Daryl had thought she was; just hours ago, she had been alive. And now, she was really gone? It didn't seem real, how stacked the odds were against them.

"Mags, shh…shh." Glenn was trying to coax the oldest – and now only – Greene sister to her feet; his eyes darting from Maggie to the corpse beside her as he did. Daryl knew he feared it reanimating while they were vulnerable.

However, the second Glenn tried to lift her, Maggie twisted her body in all directions and tried to push him away from him, her arms flailing. Her husband was thrown off a bit – his legs staggering – but kept his grasp on her. Maggie continued to push away from him and howl.

The eyes of the group members darted around; waiting for someone to step in and help Glenn. Daryl wanted to help; he wanted to do something for Maggie. But he could hardly take _his_ eyes off the bloodied braid he was clenching in his fist.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Maggie screamed at Glenn, who she finally managed to successfully push off of her. Glenn's eyes flashed with hurt for a moment, but then he backed away as she crumbled into herself; understanding he wasn't want she needed.

What she needed was her sister.

"We can't just stand here," Michonne warned, looking at the corpse and then around at the surrounding trees. She began to take a step forward, but awkwardly stepped back as Maggie's eye flashed with anger.

It was Sasha who got up the courage to approach her. Sasha – who knew the hurt of losing a sibling – walked right up to Maggie and carefully kneeled down in front of her. "Maggie, we're here for you. We are _all_ here for you. And we know you gotta mourn. But we can't stay out here."

"We gotta find a place before it gets dark," Rick agreed.

Maggie didn't look at either of them, instead her eyes trailed from the blood soaked leaves, to Daryl, then to his hand. He was still grasping onto the braid. It was only thing they had left of her. But it wasn't his to keep. Nothing ever was. So he clutched it tightly, until his knuckles turned white, and then staggered over to Maggie.

He stopped right next to Sasha and extended his arm, opening his palm up to her. Maggie stared at it for a moment then moved her shaky hand up to grab it.

"Maggie?" Sasha repeated herself.

Maggie looked at the braid for a moment and trailed her thumb across the woven strands, then nodded to say she was ready. Glenn began to inch closer to her again to help her up. Rick was already finding the best direction to head. When he decided, he jerked his head and, slowly, the group began to follow.

Except for Daryl.

"So we're just gonna leave her?"

"What?" Rick turned and asked him.

Daryl looked back at the compound, smoking in the distance. "I said, so we're just gonna leave her?"

**. . .**

Every time Beth breathed, it felt as though her entire body was bruise; no…as though her entire body was bruised and someone was pressing down hard on the bruise. She couldn't even unclench her fist, in fear of crying out and revealing she wasn't really asleep.

Moments after Tyreese had handed her Judith and Beth had fallen to her knees, she left nothing but joy. But as she stayed there, on the road, crying, she could tell that her vison wasn't just blurring from the tears. Carol could tell too, as Beth begun waddling slightly, and plucked the baby out of her arms just before Beth toppled over.

For a second, everything was blank; but then Beth fluttered her eye lids open and could feel Daryl scooping her into his arms. _No…Daryl's not here,_ Beth reminded herself as she looked at Tyreese.

"Daryl's not here," she repeated, out loud that time.

After that, she'd fainted.

She'd woken up, in agony, almost twenty minutes ago, but she hadn't done or said anything. Carol and Tyreese were in the middle of a conversation; one she wasn't supposed to be a part of.

Tyreese was talking. "What are we supposed to tell her about –"

"– that's the last thing we need to worry about, Tyreese," Carol interrupted him.

"And what about the others…"

There was a pause, then Carol spoke again. "No. That would just upset her."

Beth listened harder. Who were they talking about? The others that had been in the cars? The ones from their group that had escaped. Terminates? Daryl? Beth still didn't understand why Carol had even been at Terminus.

Suddenly there was a shifted in the conversation. Beth couldn't quite tell if it was the same subject and a different angle, or a completely new one.

"And what about Daryl?" Tyreese asked.

Beth stiffened. Then relaxed slightly, feeling eyes drifting onto her.

Then Carol spoke. "We have to consider our next moves carefully."

Tyreese didn't reply to that. Like Beth, he was probably analyzing Carol's words and the meaning behind them. To Beth, it felt like when her father used to say _maybe_ to her doing something. Like, _maybe_ they'd consider getting Daryl.

Beth couldn't help herself, he body stiffened completely and she hauled herself up of the floor

"So we're just gonna leave him!?" Beth yelled, attempting to throw her arms up in rage and groaning. "THIS IS DARYL WE'RE TALKING ABOUT."

Tyreese walked up to her and carefully tried to get her to settle back down to the floor. Carol was walking swiftly behind him. "Of course we're not going to leave him."

"Okay then let's go!" Beth reached for her belt, but realized it was empty of all knives. She looked around the shack quickly, spotting her weapons in a pile on a rickety table. Beth moved to get them

However, Carol cut her path off immediately by side stepping. "Beth, we had to carry you in here a few hours ago."

"So?"

"So, do you think you can make there walk there and back and fight the walkers?" Tyreese said, grabbing onto her upper arm gently. "You're wobbling right now."

Beth pulled away, wincing as she did. "This. Is. Daryl."

"That doesn't change the fact that you're not strong enough," Carol argued, still blocking Beth's path.

"So what? You're just going to leave me here to look after the baby?" Beth could hear her voice rising, but couldn't control it. "Like every time before?"

"Beth…"

"No! I've seen all of you…countless times…bounce back from whatever injuries you've gotten."

Carol sighed. "That's when we've had to, Beth. You don't have to, we're here."

"_Yes I do_. I promised I wouldn't leave him!"

**I'm a despicable human being (if you didn't read that in Rupunzel's voice I'm only a little mad). Waddup my home dawgs. Guess who updated finally. ME? Yes me! I'm sorry, but graduating was my top priority - I know _I'm so selfish - _my bad. Anyway, try not to hate me and try to enjoy this chapter.**


	38. Chapter 38

**This is it.**

The sunlight was continuously diminishing in the sky as Daryl, Michonne and Bob silently made their way back to Terminus. Bob was there because he understood Daryl's thinking; Michonne was there because she wasn't about to let them go trotting about the forest by themselves. Everyone else had gone to find shelter before they lost the light of day completely.

Daryl kept repeating to himself the rendezvous point he was supposed to meet up with Rick come sunset. He wanted to trust Rick with every fibre of his being, but Daryl didn't know if Rick had given him enough time to get there, do the job and get back. He knew Rick thought it was a lost cause, but Daryl couldn't leave her.

_If someone found my dad…_

If someone found her…

He couldn't imagine someone treating her like he'd treated the walker outside the moonshiner's cabin. He couldn't think of her – whatever she was now – wandering around Terminus, until she found a way out and joined the rest of the rotten beasts. She wouldn't want to be that way either. She'd want to be at peace.

"Daryl," Michonne hissed at him, breaking the silence.

Daryl peered over towards her. "What?"

Michonne jerked her head towards the treeline they'd been following; it was hard to miss the herd of walkers stumbling the same way they were heading. Daryl could feel his pace quicken immediately.

"Don't push yourself too hard Daryl," Bob warned. "You're paler than some of the walkers."

"Didn't ask for your advice," Daryl growled. "Or your help for that matter."

"But we're here aren't we?" Michonne responded. "And we're here mainly so your ass doesn't die. So listen to him."

"Whatever," Daryl looked away from them and didn't bother slowing his pace one bit.

**. . .**

Beth felt like she was going to be sick, or faint – probably both – but she kept running.

She'd broken off from Carol and Tyreese what seemed like hours ago, but she thought she could still hear Carol calling after her; she could still see the look of…was it betrayal or disappointment…on Tyreese's face as she whipped passed him.

Beth's stomach dropped even more just thinking about it.

She'd pushed Carol; someone she thought of as family. She'd shoved her away with every ounce of strength she could muster and sent the woman to the ground. Beth had wobbled herself but had been able to remain on her feet and went straight for her weapons laying on the table. When Beth had turned back around, Tyreese was beside Carol with Judith still in his arm. He had been trying to help Carol up with his free hand when Beth took off.

Before Beth disappeared out the door she had called back, apologizing. She knew better than both of them that it was a stupid impulse; that she was going to get herself killed. But, since she landed in Terminus, every breath she took had to be planned out carefully, and she saw where that got her. Without her sister and Glenn, and without Daryl; and Beth knew she'd rather die trying on a whim, then sitting around calculating and wondering.

Suddenly there was the sound of something snapping and Beth whipped her head around. A walker was tripping through the brush towards her, but she only looked at it for a moment before continuing on. _Out run the walkers, only kill them if they're in your path_, Beth told herself. She had to make it to the fence without wasting all of herself; the fence would be where the thick of the walkers were.

**. . .**

The perimeter of Terminus came into view just as the sky began to turn pink. A hoard of walkers were pushing at the fence and more of them were clambering through the open gates. They all looked and sounded the same; covered in filth and moaning in hunger.

"You think we can find her with them?" Michonne asked.

"We have to try," Bob said.

Daryl just nodded and headed toward a corner of the chain link that wasn't completely over run with walkers. Michonne caught up to him quickly.

"I'm not trying to be insensitive, Daryl," she started, "but Rick might not wait for us too long if we show up after dark."

Daryl forced back barking a response at her. She was, after all, right. "Ten minutes. Then we'll head back whether we find her or not."

Michonne nodded and placed her hand on a knife she'd gotten from the weapons bag. "Let's go."

The three of them broke out into a steady jog as they came closer to the fence. Michonne took the lead, cutting down walkers, followed by Daryl and then Bob. As Michonne pulled her knife out of the last walkers she carefully hooked her boot onto the fence and began to climb.

Daryl gritted his teeth as he boosted himself up onto the chain link as well. He felt his freshly sealed flesh burn, but he didn't stop climbing. When all three of them were up and over, Michonne turned to Daryl to lead. He didn't exactly know where to go to look first, but he led anyway, and headed towards the heart of Terminus.

Time ticked away quickly as they moved and no walkers seemed to want to come in their wake. In every alleyway they took, there were hardly any – and out of the ones that were there, none of them had blonde hair draping down their back. As them came closer to the heart however, they could hear the slurry of moans mixing together.

As the three of them rounded the corner, the sea of walkers finally came into view. Daryl took in a breathe, feeling overwhelmed for a moment, but then began to let his eyes dart back and forth as the walkers stumbled. He knew she had to be there with them, and soon he fell entranced searching for her.

"MOVE!"

Suddenly Daryl felt a tug on his arm and looked to see Michonne pulling him back; reaching across his body and towards a walker that had gotten too close for comfort. As she took the walker down and Daryl staggered back and he noticed the mood of the hoard had suddenly shifted.

They'd gotten a whiff of dinner.

Daryl, Michonne and Bob only paused for quick second to exchange glances before they took off alongside the building. Daryl could hear Michonne trying to call which way to head, but her voice was drown out with the intensified groans of the hungry herd. Instead, Daryl took random turns this way and that as he tried to lose them.

He turned down an alleyway that looked clear enough for them to get away, but as they reached the end, it was blocked of by even more walkers; bottlenecking at the end and trying to get the first bite. Daryl whipped out his knife that matched Michonne's and hacked at the ones he could clear away. But every time he killed one, its place was taken by another.

Bob called out, "They're coming in from the other side now!" Daryl turned his head swiftly and saw that Bob was telling the truth. They were going to be blocked in completely soon enough.

Daryl look down another and tried to think. They needed more. They needed more people...and they needed more weapons...or else they wouldn't have a fighting chance. But he sure as hell didn't have any of either present.

He'd let Bob and Michonne come with him on a suicide mission…

"WHAT NOW, DARYL?" Michonne shouted.

Daryl couldn't even look at her, all he could do was uselessly take down the endless stream of walkers. "I…I DON'T KNOW…"

"DARYL!" Michonne yelled again.

Daryl turned away from the walkers then. He didn't care if it got him. He was angry at himself and at Michonne and Bob for coming with him; and angry at the world the way it was. He was to blame for their meaningless deaths that were about to come; and he was to blame for Beth's meaningless death. And he didn't know what else to do but to bark at them that he didn't know what to. But just as those angry words were about to exit Daryl's mouth, a bolt went flying passed his head and into a walker's that coming straight for him.

Seconds after the bolt flew passed him, guns were sounding off and the roar of the crowd overpowered that of the walkers. Feet were moving, stampeding through the alleyway; people Daryl had never seen before were hacking and shooting at the creatures. But all he could focus on was the girl standing before him.

Her blonde hair – caked with blood and dirt – was falling over her shoulder as reloaded the crossbow; and as she looked back up every inch of her skin was coated with it as well. The only indication that set her aside from the walkers (besides being able to load the crossbow) were her bright blue eyes that gleamed as she tossed the crossbow towards him and whipped out a gun.

She smiled as she moved beside him and towards the walkers that blocking exit. He almost thought he heard her call out, "Did you miss me Daryl Dixon?" before she emptied her shell into the herd.


	39. Chapter 39

_She was beautiful; and not just in the way she looked, but in the way she moved and the honesty that emanated from every syllable she spoke. Beth Greene believed in herself, and she believed that there could be a greater good. She had faith, even when they were coasting through the unknown; and maybe that's what drew him to her, and maybe that's why he couldn't help but want to be close to her._

_Sitting across the table from her, watching her as she scrawled the note, Daryl could feel a shiver running throughout his entire body. There was an unexplainable purity in her wanting to thank someone that may never return, and the gratefulness she felt for their small sanctuary. It made him want to stay there. He wanted to make it work if the owner ever returned. Daryl believed that they could make it work; and he believed he could keep her safe._

"_What changed you mind?" She'd asked._

_It was her. But…how had she done it?_

_He didn't know how she'd done it; but she had woken up something inside of him that had been dormant for far too long. It was something strange; and he didn't know what he was feeling, but he knew it wasn't normal for him._

_He wanted to explain it to himself – the way she made him feel – and he wanted to explain it to her; but the words stuck to the tip of his tongue and in the back of his throat as she flashed him one of her impish smiles._

_All he could do was grunt and mumble. He watched her steadily as she tried herself to put it together; and then her blue eye flickered like the flame from the candles as she came to the realization._

_Her mouth parted to let out a single word: "Oh." _

_That was all she could say. She was stuck on her words like he was._

_But it didn't matter to him as he thought about what to say, and the moments that lead them to the Funeral Home: the farm going up in flames, the prison falling, and a drunken night at a moonshiner' cabin. _

_He didn't believe in fate, but maybe it was – to be there in their sweet serendipity. _

_And then she was gone._


	40. Chapter 40

He stood completely still as she moved amongst the crowd. She was asking if everyone was alright, checking for bites or scratches and humbly receiving thanks from the people she had freed. Beth Greene was their hero.

Daryl kept his eyes on her until he could feel someone come up beside him. His eyes flicked for a moment to see Michonne beside him. She looked anxious; he knew she was watching the sky instead or Beth, but she'd been holding back from leaving for whatever reason.

Michonne cleared her throat. "So, she's alive."

Daryl grunted as his eyes shifted back to Beth. She was smiling and talking to people, but even her smile couldn't distract him from the blood and the bruises. The fresh blood spattered on her was walker blood, but the dark brown dried blood – he knew that was hers – and he knew her black and blue skin was not from fighting walkers either.

"Hey. _She's alive._" Michonne nudged Daryl with her elbow. "We came here expecting one thing and we got the opposite. The rest doesn't matter."

"Then what are we supposed to do now?" Daryl asked.

"Well…" Michonne eyes shifted back up to the sky. "…We gotta get going. And I think you should be the one to tell her."

Daryl breathed in as a single sentence came to his head: _You ain't ever gonna to see Maggie again._

He shook his head. He didn't know if it was because he couldn't admit he was wrong, or if he knew he'd be stuck on words once more – but he couldn't do it. "Nah. I don't have to be."

"…Daryl". Michonne started, but before she could finish, he was walking away.

**. . .**

Beth brushed her hair out of her face and looked over her shoulder towards Daryl Dixon. He was standing about as far away from her as he could get, with Michonne talking to him – or rather talking at him; he was completely disconnected from the conversation and he had a look on his face that she knew all too well. He was afraid.

But of what she didn't know.

She wanted to go over and talk to him, she hadn't exchanged any words with Daryl, Michonne or Bob since she pulled the trigger of the gun. There were too many jobs to be done since the fighting had ended. She was responsible for the people she'd led out of the train cars.

As Beth's hand came down from her hair, she placed it on her pocket. She could feel the outline of the skeleton key pressing against the fabric and smiled to herself. If there was one way she could describe her finding it, it was sheer-dumb-luck; but it'd done the job.

She thought of how she'd ended up there – with Daryl, Michonne and Bob – and all the people she'd freed; the promises she'd managed to keep. And the leadership role she had to take to rally them. She thought of every car she opened, and the dismay she felt when she looked among the unfamiliar, malnourished faces. She thought about the sounds of the walkers filling Terminus once more.

Convincing people in the train cars to fight was easy – even though she was late, they were ready. Retrieving the weapons was even easier (the doors of the rooms were practically hanging off the hinges form the havoc Carol had caused). And then, there was the crossbow.

No matter what, Beth knew she wanted it, and that she needed it. She had run through the hallways has fast as she could – stumbling over her own two feet to get to it. And just as she'd emerged back out of the building with it in her hands and her army waiting…the yelling filled the alleyways.

"Beth."

Beth turned back toward Daryl had been standing as she heard her name. Michonne was walking towards her, and he was walking away. She felt her face drop a bit, but quickly recovered from it as Michonne came closer. She took a step towards her and wrapped her arms around her friend tightly.

Michonne matched her grip and then broke the hug. "Beth, I know you're doing your thing, but we need to get doing…we told Rick…"

"RICK!?" Beth cut her off. "RICK IS WITH YOU?"

"…Yes. And we..."

Beth opened her mouth again. Wanting to ask so many questions she couldn't get out. Who else was with them? Who else had made it out of the prison? Did they know that…?

"JUDITH!" Beth yelled, finally getting her words out.


	41. Chapter 41

Arguing.

Why was it that everyone around her was always arguing? Beth didn't even understand what there was to argue about in that moment. But there they were – Michonne, Bob and Daryl – arguing while she sat on the side lines.

They were trying to come up with a game plan – trying to decide who was at the top of their priorities. There was Judith… and Carol and Tyreese. Or there was going back Rick… and Maggie and Glenn and everyone else. But returning going to Rick first would mean the absence of his daughter. And Sasha's brother. And Carol. And it would mean the presence of starving strangers without anything to cushion the blow.

There were just so many factors that needed to be considered by those "important" enough to make them. It was all too familiar to Beth – not being part of the choices made and following along to the beat of everyone else's drum. Before she would have been okay with. But now things had changed.

The people she freed from the train cars weren't looking to Michonne or Bob or Daryl. Those three were the ones that need their help just a little a little while ago. No, they were looking to Beth to make a decision. And to her, the decision was an easy one.

Without another word Beth pushed herself from the alley wall she'd planted herself against when the arguing started. The three of them didn't notice when she went along picking up knives and placing them in her belt. But the people from the train cars did, and immediately began shuffling towards to.

Michonne's attention was finally brought to her as well as the movement around them grew. "What are you doing?"

Beth shrugged, ignoring her body's instantaneous response to flinch from the strain. "We're going."

"Where?" Michonne asked, unable to hide her shocked expression.

Her answer was simple. "We're going to get Carol and Tyreese and Judith and then we're going to find Rick."

"Beth it's not that simple…" Bob started.

"Really? Because right now, it seems like the only option to me and the only shit that's actually getting done. So we're going to find them. And if _any_ of you would like to join us, this would be the time because our asses are moving now."

Her response was supposed to be to the lot of them. But the entire time, Beth found herself staring directly at Daryl Dixon. The man who couldn't find it in himself to even make eye contact with her. But she knew that if she wanted anyone in the woods with her, it would be him.

"Daryl?" Beth could hear her voice rise a bit with frustration.

He grunted and shifted his eyes – not looking directly at her, but at least in her general direction. "You heard the girl. Get moving."

**. . .**

She walked beside him in the forest, leading the pack of sickly strangers to an unknown destination. He'd forgotten how small she was, and how tall she became when he took command. But still all he could see was the swollen, bloody parts of her body. They may have made her look like a war hero to the people from the cars, but her him they were a sign he failed her.

And he didn't know if he could forgive himself for it. Every time she flinched, he wanted to flinch too. Some of the simplest thing seemed to cause her pain. Like pointing her finger, breathing to heavily…or pushing her bloody blonde hair out of her face. It was agonizing.

He knew she could sense that something was off with him. Every once in a while he'd catch her glancing at him or opening her mouth to say something. But, as per usual, they were at a loss of words for each other. All they could do was trudge on from the front, while Michonne and Bob covered the back.

**. . .**

"There should be a road... somewhere up here…" Beth called back to the others. Although she wasn't too sure how far up they were from it. But it had to be up there. She knew there had to be, but she was a whole hell of a lot sure of it then she had been when they left Terminus.

Running through the woods, all delirious didn't help a damn thing with her navigation. But she had learned a thing of two from Daryl and she had convinced herself they were going to right way by the loosened soil and heavy foot marks.

Although…they would have easily been a walker's too. But Beth kept walking. If there was one thing she knew it was that she always had to keep moving. Even if the road wasn't in sight.

Which happened to be the case for a long while. And the source of confusion and maybe even doubt for everyone but. But to Beth's relief, the road came into view just before she'd finished arguing with _herself_ to turn back.

**AN: They'll interact properly soon. I promise. **


	42. Chapter 42

Daryl stopped in his tracks completely when he saw the the shack in the distance. The sun had all but faded then and the tiny yellow light escaping from the cracks in the windows and frame were obvious. Someone was indeed inside and he wanted to believe more than anything that it was his best friend and Little Asskicker. There was always hope that it was.

He could feel Beth stop beside him as well - bringing the whole group to a halt - and could feel her nervous energy. She didn't know what to expect either. For all they knew it was Carol or Tyreese or Judith in there anymore and someone else had lit the candle. But as hard as it was for him to admit, to himself or to Beth: where there is light, there is hope.

"Should we knock on the door?" Someone piped.

"No don't be stupid." Someone else replied, suddenly sending the people from the train cars into a burst of chatter.

"Shhh." Beth hushed them, not taking her eyes off the shack.

"Maybe we should just knock," Daryl offered gruffly. He glanced back at Michonne and Bob and signalled for the to come to the front of the pack.

Daryl stole a glance at Beth. He saw her head nodding, but she didn't say a word until Michonne and Bob made it to the front. Her voice shook. "Okay let's knock."

**. . .**

It was strange for her, to call the shots and actually have someone listen to them. But that's exactly what happened as her, Michonne, Bob and Daryl walked to the door.

What if she was wrong? She knew she could be wrong. There were plenty of times she was. But she wasn't supposed to be wrong this time. She had to be right. She had to prove herself.

Beth took a deep breathe. Was this how Rick felt all the time? If it was she could understand why he was constantly throwing himself for a loop. Standing at the door then, she could feel herself wanting to lose control. But she wouldn't let herself and so she raised her hand and knocked.

. . .

The first thing the were greeted by was a gun, pointed directly at them. The barrel practically touching Beth's forehead. The second thing they were greeted by was a look of disbelief as Carol look upon their familiar faces.

There was a laugh from Michonne and Bob. A breathe of shock from Carol, followed by a muffled cry of happiness as she lowered the gun. Daryl could hear a Tyreese exclaim as well, somewhere further back in the shack.

It was overwhelming. He could feel Carol's arms wrap around him and he reciprocated the hug. There was mumbling, Michonne talking fast, explaining what was happening. A flash of Judith, bigger, with more hair than ever.

Then he caught a look at Beth from the corner of his eye. He could see her smile and joyful tears. But he could also see how pale she was and wobbling from side to side.

The girl was going to faint from how overwhelmed she was.

_Dammit_. Daryl sighed to himself. This time he sure as hell wasn't going to let her get hurt. He wasn't in any better of state, but he could walk without stumbling at least.

He called at her. "Hey, Greene." Beth turned to look at him, practically swaying to a forty five degree angle while doing so. Daryl's hand went up to her shoulder immediately to steady her. "Woah, okay Greene, take it easy.

"I'm trying," Beth replied, breathlessly.

Daryl sighed, again. "I think you need another serious piggyback."

"Seriously?" Beth asked. Daryl felt his mouth twitch for a moment as déjà vu swept over him.

"Seriously," he replied. Already swinging his crossbow around to his chest.


	43. Chapter 43

Beth kept her eyes closed and her head rested lightly upon Daryl's shoulders as he carried her through the woods. She'd forgotten that he walked so lightly, so quietly; it felt nothing more than like she was being rocked to sleep. She probably could have fallen asleep too. But she knew she couldn't; and promised herself she wouldn't.

She wouldn't sleep until they were home. Wherever home happened to be.

"Y'know your sisters gonna be right pissed at us right?" Daryl mumbled at her – his first sentence since he'd offered to carry her.

"Why?" Beth mumbled back, absentmindedly nuzzling her cheek deeper into his warm skin.

Daryl coughed awkwardly, maybe trying to cover up a laugh, then he continued on. "Cause instead of bringing her baby sister straight to her, we ran 'round hell's green acres."

Beth's head shot up then and she could feel her cheeks flushing with anger. "Well, I wasn't ever supposed to see her again, so she can probably wait just a little bit longer," she shot back. It wasn't like they went _"running 'round hell's green acres" _for nothing. It wasn't like it wasn't worth it. They had they're people back and that was everything.

Beth could feel a shift in Daryl's body; and for a second she swore he was going to drop her and start yelling at her. She herself began to shift as well. Beth didn't want him to get the satisfaction of her falling on her ass. She quickly prepared herself to jump off.

But to her surprise, she instead felt his grip tighten on her legs.

"Beth…" he started, his voice even lower than before. "…I"

There was a sting of guilt that ran right through her body then. Daryl hadn't always been the bigger person, but he was trying. And there she was being the asshole. She'd forgiven him for what he'd said about her dad and her family. She had no right hashing it back up.

Beth spoke quickly. "I'm sorry. I don't wanna fight, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Daryl muttered back as Beth leaned her head back onto his shoulders.

**. . .**

He'd thought that Beth had fallen asleep; and he'd tried to walk as carefully as possible. But then he heard her make a little wheezing sound – like he'd jostled her bruising or something – and that's when he decided he should open his big mouth.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid._

Daryl could have kicked himself. Why was it he couldn't say anything right? He didn't mean to downplay them regaining Judith, Carol and Tyreese. Having them back, it meant the world to him. He just wanted Beth to know that her sister was missing her. That Maggie (as much as he'd had his doubts before) needed her little sister.

But with her being so close to him, it made him flustered; and he hated that it did. Because whenever she got him flustered, he made mistakes. And he couldn't afford to make any mistakes. Not when they were so close to this leg of the nightmare being over.

But he also couldn't let go of her. As soon as she had shifted her body weight to jump off his back, probably thinking he was going to confront her again, he felt his hands instinctively tighten. She may have been heavier than she looked, but he was going to carry her the whole damn way. Even if packing her was torture – with her skin lightly pressed against his, and her blonde hair brushing the nape of his neck - she weighed a lot less than the guilt he seemed to be constantly carrying around.


	44. Chapter 44

_When things got bad, when things got _really _bad, Beth would always remind herself that her family needed her. That everyone had a place, and everyone had a job to do. She'd remind herself that, even though the world had fallen before her, and a lot of the comforts of her old life had crumbled away, she'd chosen to live. _

_ The day she'd felt that shard of mirror run across her wrist, hot and sharp, she knew she'd made a mistake. That there were still things she had to live for. That in some ways, she could still experience the things she had yet to. _

_ She knew that one day she'd love someone; and that she could have kids of her own. She knew she wanted to live long enough to see her kids become as rebellious as Carl. She knew that one day she may even let herself have a sip of alcohol._

_ Yes there were adjustment that would have to be made. Like Maggie, her loving someone didn't mean a fancy wedding and her dad walking her down the aisle. Having kids, meant surviving child birth; and it meant teaching them the dead walked just as well as the living. And taking a sip of alcohol meant opening a door that had scared her since she saw her father's alcoholism almost destroy him._

_ But she wanted to experience it all; and, although it seemed that they couldn't go even 30 days without an accident, she felt confident that she could while surrounded by the sturdy walls of the prison. She felt that, if they could all survive as long as they had, they could live in a world of walkers and get away with it. _

_ However, she was wrong. The moment she heard the tank firing its gun, she knew she'd been wrong about the prison. But even while she ran through the brush with Daryl, away from the burning prison and towards the unknown, the one thing she did know is that there could be another placed. Another home where she and her family could be happy._

**AN: I thought I should give you a warning, my dear friends. Soon it will be time for New Sheriff to come to a close. However, I do have exciting news when that time does come. So enjoy for now, and keep a weathered eye out. **


	45. Chapter 45

No one knew what to expect as they came closer to the rendezvous point, but it wasn't this. Daryl knew that Rick was a man of his word; but he also knew his brother to be a man of honour. He never for a second would have doubted his brother would leave them behind. So where the hell was he? In fact, the rendezvous point — a big tree marked clearly with an X — was lacking of any familiar faces. There was no one.

The group from the cars was even more nervous than they had been before. Daryl had fallen to the back of the crowd (tired from carrying Beth) and he could feel it trickling back towards them. He'd ignored it. But now Daryl could feel the nervousness of the pack start come over him as well.

"Daryl," Beth mumbled into his shoulder.

Man, he wished she'd fallen asleep. It would have been so much easier if she'd just been asleep. "Yeah, Greene?"

"They're gonna come," she stated firmly. "They didn't leave..."

_Snap_.

Beth's sentence was cut off by something or someone rustling in the bushes.

Beth breathed in. "What was..."

_Snap_.

Again. This time followed by a curse word being spat under someone's breath. Simultaneously, everyone's head in the group turned toward the voice.

"Who's there?" Tyreese called.

"What are you doing?!" Someone hissed at her. "That could be another group! A bigger group."

"No." Beth said, slowly trying to slip her way off Daryl. He could feel his hand tighten on her thighs again, but he quickly released his grip after that. "Even with all that noise, it's only one person."

It went quiet again. Just for a second. Then Tyreese called again. "Who's there?"

This time. The person didn't even try to walk quietly. In fact, it sounded like they were in a full out run; and getting closer by the second. Everyone help their breath.

Until Sasha emerged from the bushes.

She stood there for a second. Looking from her brother, to Carol, then Judith and Beth. Then she looked at the group of strangers and back to her brother. Then she tried to wipe the shocked look off her face (which she didn't succeed at).

"So you're alive." Sasha said. It wasn't exactly a question but there was a collective nod before she finally closed the space between her and her brother. "You're all alive."

Here was a slightly hysterical laugh that escaped from Tyreese as his sister broke the hug and the travelled down to Daryl; and then to Beth, who let out her usual, impish-sweet laugh. Which brought Sasha's attention straight to her.

"We…have to go! Rick...Maggie!" Sasha half yelled.

Beth smiled triumphantly. "Where are they?"

"You guys gotta see this…"

**. . .**

The one thing that scared Beth the most, wasn't the walkers, and it wasn't dying. The one thing Beth feared most, was losing herself. It terrified her that, one day, the world they lived in now would harden her so much that she didn't recognize herself; and she'd come to that point so often, she wondered if she could return from it.

Beth always wanted to be that small town girl, the one who knew everyone's names and smiled innocently at others while she babysat. But she knew that wasn't an option. She knew she had to change herself for the changing world around her. She had to grow into someone stronger. But she also had to stay grounded; and it didn't take her long to realize what she needed to stay grounded.

_Family._

It was the most important thing. No matter what world you lived in; and in this world, sometimes it was the only thing. They'd gained family and they'd lost family. They'd fought for and with their family. They'd smiled and cried with their family. They'd mourned and celebrated with their family.

This was a time for celebration.

As Beth sat on the steps of the church, she couldn't help but smile to herself. Her family was becoming whole again. Larger again. She exactly know how Rick and the others would mesh with the people from the train cars, after everything. She didn't know if they'd be able to trust them like she was able to. But while she wasn't exactly wrong about how they would react, she wasn't exactly right either.

There were sideways glances of fear. But here was also introductions of names and hands being shook. She could see that everyone kept a close eye on their weapons; but she could also see willingness to try and understand. They'd all been through horrors, they'd all made it out with the same scars; and they needed each other to heal.

Some, more than others.

Standing on the outskirts of everything, Beth could see Daryl. He was always the centurion; he looking out for everyone one else. But Beth knew he needed someone looking out for him during this transition.

Beth glanced over at her sister. Maggie was teary eyed, blotchy - basically a downright mess – and she hadn't left Beth's side since they'd walked up to the church doors.

"Maggie, why don't you sleep?"

Maggie sniffed. "If you think I'm taking my eyes off you ever again, you have another thing coming."

Beth had missed arguing with her sister. "You have to sleep at some point, Maggie."

"I don't have to do nothing…" Maggie started but was interrupted by a very long yawn.

"See." Beth smiled smugly.

"Fine. I'm going to go find Glenn. But if you move an inch from this step before I get back…" Maggie yawned again and stood up.

Beth waited just until her sister entered the church before she was up and off the step and heading toward Daryl.

**. . .**

Walking up to the church, it could have been like something out of a movie. There was screaming, crying and laughing. There were a million questions being asked and not enough air to answer. Everyone grabbed at Beth. They wanted to touch her – to see if she was real. Everyone kissed Judith and hugged Carol and Tyreese. Even the people from the cars were treated with less hostility than he'd expected.

To everyone it was a miracle; and it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement.

But Daryl had already had his reunions. He'd already experienced the miracle; and they couldn't be left sitting ducks. So while everyone crowded and talked and exchanged names, he stood quietly and watched everything from a far.

He made sure no one made any sudden/unnecessary movements. He made sure everyone's nervous eyes didn't set anything off. And he watched Beth. He watched her smile and try over and over again; and when she found her way to the church steps with Maggie, his eyes followed. Then he'd go back to watching everyone else.

But he'd always glance over at the stairs every once in a while. Just to make sure she had space; and to make sure she was okay. However, when he looked over the last time, his eyes trailed on an empty step. No Maggie, and no Beth.

Instead, she'd found her way over to him.

"Hey." She nudged his arm and they both flinched a little.

Daryl ignored it though. He expected Maggie would be hauling her ass over any time now to have her sister back in her sight. He knew he might as well take advantage of the limited time. "Hey."

"A little overwhelming, huh?" She asked, looking up at him like nothing had changed. Like it was still just them alone in the mortuary.

"You alright?" Daryl followed suit and avoided making eye contact with her.

"Yeah." Beth answered, moving a little bit closer to him. "I just wanted to know."

Daryl furrowed his brow, not exactly sure what she meant. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Beth began. "You never answered me."

"What?"

Beth raised the corner of her mouth like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Back in Terminus. I asked you if you missed me. So..?"

"So what?" Daryl grumbled.

"Did you miss me while I was gone, Daryl Dixon?"

Daryl snorted and for a split second, considered walking away. But he didn't. He stood his ground and answered just as he felt her fingers intertwining with his. "More than you know, Greene."

**The End**

**AN: Well kids. It's been one hell of a ride. A year and a half heart break and delusion and so much more! I want to thank all of you who read and reviewed this story, and who stuck with me to the bitter end – even when I myself didn't know if I was going to finish this story. There were countless times I sat at my computer, groaning or considering deleting _New Sheriff_ after not updating for months. There were times where I lost faith in myself, but I always came back around because I love Beth Greene. **

**And now after everything, I've decided…hey why not subject myself to this all over again? So I will be finishing up my two other fics – _Saudade_ and _Where Things Come Back_ – and then be starting on the sequel to _New Sheriff in Town._**

**The sequel is entitled _Bigger than These Bones _and it will follow Daryl, Beth and the rest of team family navigating through life after Terminus and the dangers yet to come.**

**STAY TUNED. I WILL BE POSITNG IN NEW SHERIFF WHEN THE SEQUEL IS UP. **


	46. Sequel Annoucement

**Well, hello lovelies. Guess what. The first chapter to the sequel is up and running! No, I'm not done with my other fics, but I couldn't help myself, I'm just very excited! The name has changed from what I was originally going to call it, but his title fits a lot better with what I'm trying to achieve with this story line. **

**This is just a little taste for the time being…although, I'd suggest not straying too far…there is always more to come.**


End file.
